If you live long enough, you'll see that every victory turns into a defeat.
Simone De BeauvoirRead
Retirement may be looked upon either as a prolonged holiday or as a rejection, a being thrown on to the scrap-heap.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Retirement can be seen positively as a chance to enjoy life or negatively as being discarded from society.
In this quote, Simone De Beauvoir presents a dual perspective on retirement. It can be interpreted as a period of relaxation and freedom, allowing individuals to pursue their interests and passions. Conversely, it can also be viewed as a phase of life where one feels rejected or obsolete, akin to being cast aside. This reflects the broader societal attitudes towards aging and the value placed on productivity.
Themes
RetirementHolidayRejectionLifeSociety
In practice
Example use cases
During a retirement party, one might reflect on how retiring can mean a new beginning.
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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