The word love has by no means the same sense for both sexes, and this is one cause of the serious misunderstandings that divide them. - Simone de Beauvoir

---

Life is occupied in both perpetuating itself and in surpassing itself; if all it does is maintain itself, then living is only not dying. - Simone de Beauvoir

---

It is old age, rather than death, that is to be contrasted with life. Old age is life's parody, whereas death transforms life into a destiny: in a way it preserves it by giving it the absolute dimension. Death does away with time. - Simone de Beauvoir

---

Man is defined as a human being and a woman as a female - whenever she behaves as a human being she is said to imitate the male. - Simone de Beauvoir

---

Society, being codified by man, decrees that woman is inferior; she can do away with this inferiority only by destroying the male's superiority. - Simone de Beauvoir

---

Defending the truth is not something one does out of a sense of duty or to allay guilt complexes, but is a reward in itself. - Simone de Beauvoir

---

No one is more arrogant toward women, more aggressive or scornful, than the man who is anxious about his virility. - Simone de Beauvoir

---

When an individual is kept in a situation of inferiority, the fact is that he does become inferior. - Simone de Beauvoir

---

One is not born a woman, but becomes one. - Simone de Beauvoir

---

One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation and compassion. - Simone de Beauvoir

---