If you live long enough, you'll see that every victory turns into a defeat.
Simone De BeauvoirRead
Those interested in perpetuating present conditions are always in tears about the marvelous past that is about to disappear, without having so much as a smile for the young future.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on how some people lament over the loss of the past while neglecting the potential of the future.
Simone De Beauvoir's quote critiques individuals who cling to nostalgia and mourn for the bygone days, expressing concern over the loss of what was while failing to appreciate or invest in the new generation and the future that lies ahead. It suggests a need for balance, urging people to not just romanticize the past but also to embrace and nurture what is yet to come.
Themes
NostalgiaFutureChangeProgressPastPresent
In practice
Example use cases
During a lecture on social change, I quoted this to emphasize the importance of focusing on young people's potential.
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)
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 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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When we clean up after ourselves, we have nothing to blame. When we begin to live our lives in that way, cleaning up after ourselves, what is left is further vision and further openness, which leads to cleaning up the rest of the world.
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Every moment is an organizing opportunity, every person a potential activist, every minute a chance to change the world.
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