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I went to get a detective story. You have to kill time. But time will kill me too - and there´s the true, preestablished balance.
Simone De Beauvoir
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Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote reflects on the inevitability of time and the balance between life and the passage of time.

Simone De Beauvoir's quote speaks to the notion of time as both an ally and an adversary in the human experience. While we often engage in activities to 'kill time', the profound realization is that time itself is relentless and will eventually prevail over us. This duality highlights the importance of acknowledging our mortality and the fleeting nature of existence, emphasizing the balance between living in the moment and facing the inevitable end.

Themes

TimeBalanceLifeMortalityExistence

In practice

Example use cases

During a philosophical discussion on the nature of life at a seminar.

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If you live long enough, you'll see that every victory turns into a defeat.
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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.
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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.
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