Simone de Beauvoir

"The world belongs to those who claim it through their actions."

"A person's freedom is inseparable from the freedom of others."

"The individual must create her own values; she cannot accept them passively."

"To understand history is to understand the possibility of change."

"Authenticity requires that we live without illusions and without false hope."

"The work of justice is the work of each individual in each moment."

"A life of meaning is a life of active engagement and deliberate choice."

"One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman through the choices one makes and the life one leads."

"I am my own heroine, not the heroines of my novels."

"The world has never belonged to women, but women have always belonged to the world."

"To be a woman is to be condemned to justify one's existence perpetually."

"Sexuality is an expression of the whole personality and not just a physical act."

"Women are the only oppressed group in history never to have claimed victory."

"Authentic love is the only answer to the question of how to live."

"If you live long enough, you will discover that you made mistakes along the way."

"The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are."

"One cannot discover new oceans unless one consents to lose sight of the shore."

"I wish that every human life might be pure transparent freedom."

"A man is in general better pleased when he has a good dinner upon his table than when his wife talks Greek."

"Motherhood is not a biological destiny but a social role."

"Economic independence is the first condition of liberty for women."

"Man is defined as a human being and a woman as a female, whenever she behaves as a human being, she is said to imitate the male."

"The most successful woman is one who can build a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at her."

"Art is not meant to decorate walls; it is meant to wage war against brutality and darkness."

"When women are gathered together, they engage in conversation more as individuals than as members of a group."

"Consciousness is a being such that in its being, its being is in question insofar as this being implies a being other than itself."

"I love people who are able to get things done."

"One must accept death as an important fact of human existence."

"The worst thing that can happen to a woman is to be made to feel she is no longer needed."

"Every woman must teach herself that the struggle for freedom is the struggle for oneself."