Fathers never have exactly the daughters they want because they invent a notion a them that the daughters have to conform to.

Sex pleasure in women is a kind of magic spell; it demands complete abandon; if words or movements oppose the magic of caresses, the spell is broken.

Change your life today. Don't gamble on the future, act now, without delay.

It is in the knowledge of the genuine conditions of our lives that we must draw our strength to live and our reasons for living.

Capabilities are clearly manifested only when they have been realized.

She would never change, but one day at the touch of a fingertip she would fall to dust.

Representation of the world, like the world itself, is the work of men; they describe it from their own point of view, which they confuse with absolute truth.

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)

I was made for another planet altogether. I mistook the way.

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

The body is not a thing, it is a situation: it is our grasp on the world and our sketch of our project

All oppression creates a state of war. And this is no exception.

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.

If you live long enough, you'll see that every victory turns into a defeat.

I tore myself away from the safe comfort of certainties through my love for truth - and truth rewarded me.

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.

What an odd thing a diary is: the things you omit are more important than those you put in.

To lose confidence in one’s body is to lose confidence in oneself.

One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, and compassion

A man attaches himself to woman -- not to enjoy her, but to enjoy himself.

That's what I consider true generosity: You give your all, and yet you always feel as if it costs you nothing.

In itself, homosexuality is as limiting as heterosexuality: the ideal should be to be capable of loving a woman or a man; either, a human being, without feeling fear, restraint, or obligation.

When I was a child, when I was an adolescent, books saved me from despair: that convinced me that culture was the highest of values[...].

One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.