"The fact that we are human beings is infinitely more important than all the peculiarities that distinguish human beings from one another; it is never the given that confers superiorities: "virtue", as the ancients called it, is defined at the level of "that which depends on us". In both sexes is played out the same drama of the flesh and the spirit, of finitude and transcendence; both are gnawed away by time and laid in wait for by death, they have the same essential need for one another; and they can gain from their liberty the same glory. If they were to taste it, they would no longer be tempted to dispute fallacious privileges, and fraternity between them could then come into existence."
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Philosophers from FranceEssayists from FranceNovelists from FranceAutobiographers from FranceBiographers from France
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Simone de Beauvoir
1908 – 1986
französische Schriftstellerin und Feministin
94 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Simone de Beauvoir →
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