Quote by: Simone de Beauvoir

Life is occupied in both perpetuating itself & in surpassing itself; if all it does is maintain itself, then living is only not dying, & human existence is indistinguishable from an absurd vegetation; a life justifies itself only if its effort to perpetuate itself is integrated into its surpassing & if this surpassing has no other limits than those which the subject assigns himself.


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Author Bio


  • NameSimone de Beauvoir
  • DescriptionFrench writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, political activist, feminist, and social theorist
  • AliasesSimone-Lucie-Ernestine-Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir
  • BornJanuary 9, 1909
  • DiedApril 14, 1986
  • CountryFrance
  • ProfessionPolitical Philosopher; Journalist; Existentialist; Woman Of Letters; Novelist; Autobiographer; Essayist; Political Activist; Diarist; Women Letter Writer
  • WorksThe Mandarins
  • AwardsPrix Goncourt; Austrian State Prize For European Literature