If you live long enough, you'll see that every victory turns into a defeat.
Simone De BeauvoirRead
We must not confuse the present with the past. With regard to the past, no further action is possible.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the importance of distinguishing the current moment from past actions, as one cannot change the past.
Simone De Beauvoir's quote highlights a crucial philosophical perspective: while the past shapes our experiences and identities, it should not dictate our present actions or decisions. By recognizing that the past is unchangeable, we can free ourselves to engage more fully with the present and make choices that reflect our current values and aspirations.
Themes
PresentPastActionChangePhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
Using this quote in a motivational speech about personal growth and moving on.
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.
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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The true strength of the Christian is the power of truth and love, which leads to the renunciation of all violence. Faith and violence are incompatible.
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We are here speaking in open disapproval of that false system of philosophy, not so long ago introduced, by which, because of an extended and unbridled desire of novelty, truth is not sought where it truly resides, and, with a disregard for the holy and apostolic traditions, other vain, futile, uncertain doctrines, not approved by the Church are accepted as true, on which very vain men mistakenly think that truth itself is supported and sustained.
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