If you live long enough, you'll see that every victory turns into a defeat.
Simone De BeauvoirRead
I could see no reason for being sad. It´s just that it makes me unhappy not to feel happy.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses the idea that sadness is unnecessary and that the absence of happiness can be a source of unhappiness.
Simone De Beauvoir reflects on the nature of happiness and sadness, suggesting that one should not dwell in sadness, as it is counterproductive and only leads to more unhappiness. The quote emphasizes the human desire for happiness and the discomfort caused by its absence, advocating for a proactive approach towards cultivating joy.
Themes
HappinessSadnessEmotionMindsetWell-Being
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech about mental health.
More from Simone De Beauvoir
All quotes →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)
Simone De BeauvoirRead
To catch a husband is an art; to hold him is a job.
Simone De BeauvoirRead
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.
Simone De BeauvoirRead
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.
Simone De BeauvoirRead
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 … Eating, sleeping, cleaning – 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.
Simone De BeauvoirRead
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The art of living does not consist in preserving and clinging to a particular mode of happiness, but in allowing happiness to change its form without being disappointed by the change; happiness, like a child, must be allowed to grow up.
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