If you live long enough, you'll see that every victory turns into a defeat.
Simone De BeauvoirRead
Some things I loved have vanished. A great many others have been given to me
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects the inevitability of loss and the appreciation of what remains and is gained in life.
Simone De Beauvoir's quote captures the essence of life's transient nature, acknowledging that while we may lose things we once cherished, life compensates us with new experiences and relationships. It speaks to the balance of loss and gain, reminding us to embrace change and value the gifts that life continues to offer.
Themes
LossGainChangeAppreciationLife
In practice
Example use cases
In a graduation speech about embracing the future while acknowledging past losses.
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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Let choice whisper in your ear and love murmur in your heart. Be ready. Here comes life.
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And I can't be running back and fourth forever between grief and high delight.
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My dad had this incredible kindness that oozed through every part of his body. He had the ability to look at life positively in spite of what he went through. He was a Holocaust survivor. When he was 15-1/2 years old, he was liberated from the Dachau Concentration Camp by American soldiers who risked a lot to save people they had never met.
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When you spend your life doing what you love to do, you are nourishing your Soul. It matters not what you do, only that you love whatever you happen to do.
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In all my years of counselling those near death, I've yet to hear anyone say they wish they had spent more time at the office
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