If you live long enough, you'll see that every victory turns into a defeat.
Simone De BeauvoirRead
The body is not a thing, it is a situation: it is our grasp on the world and our sketch of our project
Interpretation
The quote conveys that the body is not merely a physical entity but an embodiment of our experiences and aspirations.
Simone De Beauvoir emphasizes that the body should be viewed as more than just a physical thing; rather, it serves as a contextual frame for our existence and the life we aim to build. It represents our connection to the world around us and articulates our personal journey, reflecting the interplay between our identity, desires, and experiences.
In practice
During a motivational speech about self-acceptance, this quote can illustrate the importance of perceiving oneself beyond physical attributes.
If you live long enough, you'll see that every victory turns into a defeat.
Two separate beings, in different circumstances, face to face in freedom and seeking justification of their existence through one another, will always live an adventure full of risk and promise." (p. 248)
To catch a husband is an art; to hold him is a job.
Sex pleasure in woman is a kind of magic spell; it demands complete abandon; if words or movements oppose the magic of caresses, the spell is broken.
As long as there have been men and they have lived, they have all felt this tragic ambiguity of their condition, but as long as there have been philosophers and they have thought, most of them have tried to mask it.
Few tasks are more like the torture of Sisyphus than housework, with its endless repetition: the clean becomes soiled, the soiled is made clean, over and over, day after day. The housewife wears herself out marking time: she makes nothing, simply perpetuates the present β¦ Eating, sleeping, cleaning β the years no longer rise up towards heaven, they lie spread out ahead, grey and identical. The battle against dust and dirt is never won.
There are huge advertising budgets only when there's no difference between the products. If the products really were different, people would buy the one that's better. Advertising teaches people not to trust their judgment. Advertising teaches people to be stupid.
In apartments and cottages, on the street and in the train... I listen... More and more, I turn into one large ear, always turning to another person.
[T]he delegation of the government, in [a republic], to a small number of citizens elected by the rest . . . [is] to refine and enlarge the public views by passing them through the medium of a chosen body of citizens, whose wisdom may best discern the true interest of their country and whose patriotism and love of justice will be least likely to sacrifice it to temporary or partial considerations.
God is an ever-present spirit guiding all that happens to a wise and holy end.
What is life but a series of inspired follies.
The Puritans left England for America not because they couldn't be Puritans in their mother country, but because they were not allowed to force others to become Puritans; in the New World, of course, they could and did.
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