If you live long enough, you'll see that every victory turns into a defeat.
Simone De BeauvoirRead
Society cares about the individual only in so far as he is profitable. The young know this. Their anxiety as they enter in upon social life matches the anguish of the old as they are excluded from it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Society values individuals primarily for their contributions, leading to anxiety for both the young entering social life and the old being left out.
Simone De Beauvoir's quote highlights the transactional nature of societal relationships, suggesting that an individual's worth is often measured by their profitability to society. This creates a disconnection, where young people feel pressure to conform and contribute, while older individuals experience isolation and anguish as they are marginalized once they are no longer deemed useful. The quote underscores the importance of recognizing the intrinsic value of individuals beyond their societal roles.
Themes
SocietyIndividualProfitabilityAnxietyMarginalization
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about social responsibility, one might quote De Beauvoir to highlight the importance of valuing individuals for more than just their utility.
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)
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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 … 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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