If you live long enough, you'll see that every victory turns into a defeat.
Simone De BeauvoirRead
Indeed, there is nothing more arbitrary than intervening as a stranger in a destiny which is not ours.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Intervening in someone else's destiny is both arbitrary and potentially unjust.
Simone De Beauvoir highlights the complexity of interfering in the lives and destinies of others, suggesting that such actions are often based on personal whims rather than a true understanding of what is right. It compels us to reflect on the nature of free will and the ethical implications of meddling in the paths chosen by others.
Themes
DestinyInterventionFreedomPhilosophyEthics
In practice
Example use cases
During a debate on free will and ethics, this quote could offer insight into the ramifications of personal choices.
More from Simone De Beauvoir
All quotes βTwo 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)
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To catch a husband is an art; to hold him is a job.
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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.
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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 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.
Simone De BeauvoirRead
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