Quotes from Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter

“Be loved, be admired, be necessary; be somebody.”
― Simone de Beauvoir, quote from Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter

“…but all day long I would be training myself to think, to understand, to criticize, to know myself; I was seeking for the absolute truth: this preoccupation did not exactly encourage polite conversation.”
― Simone de Beauvoir, quote from Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter

“The books I liked became a Bible from which I drew advice and support; I copied out long passages from them; I memorized new canticles and new litanies, psalms, proverbs, and prophecies, and I sanctified every incident in my life by the recital of these sacred texts. My emotions, my tears, and my hopes were no less sincere on account of that; the words and the cadences, the lines and the verses were not aids to make believe: but they rescued from silent oblivion all those intimate adventures of the spirit that I couldn’t speak to anyone about; they created a kind of communion between myself and those twin souls which existed somewhere out of reach; instead of living out my small private existence, I was participating in a great spiritual epic.”
― Simone de Beauvoir, quote from Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter

“إن اللذة تبقى قذرة إذا لم تصهر بنار العاطفة”
― Simone de Beauvoir, quote from Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter

“In fact, the sickness I was suffering from was that I had been driven out of the paradise of childhood and had not found my place in the world of adults. I had set myself up in the absolute in order to gaze down upon this world which was rejecting me; now, if I wanted to act, to write a book, to express myself, I would have to go back down there: but my contempt had annihilated it, and I could see nothing but emptiness. The fact is that I had not yet put my hand to the plow. Love, action, literary work: all I did was to roll these ideas round in my head; I was fighting in an abstract fashion against abstract possibilities, and I had come to the conclusion that reality was of the most pitiful insignificance. I was hoping to hold fast to something, and misled by the violence of this indefinite desire, I was confusing it with the desire for the infinite.”
― Simone de Beauvoir, quote from Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter

“في الريف كنت أحس هناك وجود الله أكثر مما كنت أحسه في باريس. و كنت كلما التصقت بالأرض كلماازددت قرباً منه، و كانت كل نزهة صلاة له. كان يخيل إلي أنه على نحو ما بحاجة إلى عينيّ لتكون للأشجار ألوانها. و حرارة الشمس، و رطوبةالندى، أنى لذهن مجرد أن يحسهما إلا عبر جسدي؟ لقد جعل هذه الأرض للبشر، و جعل البشر ليشهدوا بمحاسنها. و حين كنت أجتاز في الصباح الحواجز لأوغل في الغابات فإنما هو الذي كان يناديني، و كان ينظر إلي بفرح و أنا أنظر إلى هذا العالم الذي خلقه لأراه.”
― Simone de Beauvoir, quote from Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter

“أكثر ما كان يجذبني إليه ضحكته: فكأنما سقط، من غير انتظار، على كوكب ليس هو كوكبه، فأخذ يكتشف طرافته العجيبة. و حين كانت ضحكته تنفجر، كان كل شيء يبدو لي جديداً، أخاذاً، رائعاً.”
― Simone de Beauvoir, quote from Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter

“I was very fond of Lagneau’s phrase: “I have no comfort but in my absolute despair.”
― Simone de Beauvoir, quote from Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter

“لقد كنت أشعر برضى غامر أن أعرف أني خارج القانون”
― Simone de Beauvoir, quote from Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter

“كنت أعتقد أن الانسان ليس بوسعه أن يحب من غير ان يكره ”
― Simone de Beauvoir, quote from Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter

“Les livres que j'aimais devinrent une Bible où je puisais des conseils et des secours. ”
― Simone de Beauvoir, quote from Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter

“من المريع جداً أن يتسلى المرء حين لا يشعر باي حاجة للتسلية”
― Simone de Beauvoir, quote from Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter

“وكنت أبكي لأن هذا كان جميلا إلى هذا الحد , ولأنه كان لا مجدياً”
― Simone de Beauvoir, quote from Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter

“On the evenings when my parents held parties, the drawing-room mirrors multiplied to infinity the scintillations of a crystal chandelier. Mama would take her seat at the grand piano to accompany a lady dressed in a cloud of tulle who played the violin and a cousin who performed on a cello. I would crack between my teeth the candied shell of an artificial fruit, and a burst of light would illuminate my palate with a taste of blackcurrant or pineapple: all the colours, all the lights were mine, the gauzy scarves, the diamonds, the laces; I held the whole party in my mouth.”
― Simone de Beauvoir, quote from Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter

“The thing I understood least of all was that knowledge led to despair and damnation. Our spiritual mentor had not said that those bad books had given a false picture of life: if that had been the case, he could easily have exposed their falsehood; the tragedy of the little girl whom he had failed to bring to salvation was that she had made a premature discovery of the true nature of reality. Well, anyhow, I thought, I shall discover it myself one day, and it isn’t going to kill me: the idea that there was a certain age when knowledge of the truth could prove fatal I found offensive to common sense.”
― Simone de Beauvoir, quote from Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter

“لم تفتح لي الفلسفة السماء ولم ترسني في الأرض.”
― Simone de Beauvoir, quote from Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter

“تعلمت ألم الوجود، لقد نُفيت من جنة الطفولة و لم أجد مكاناً بين الكبار .”
― Simone de Beauvoir, quote from Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter

“كم هو كليّ حضور الإنسان،وكم هو جذري غيابه.”
― Simone de Beauvoir, quote from Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter

“Literature took the place in my life that had once been occupied by religion: it absorbed me entirely, and transfigured my life.”
― Simone de Beauvoir, quote from Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter

“Alone: for the first time I understood the terrible significance of that word. Alone without a witness, without anyone to speak to, without refuge. The breath in my body, the blood in my veins, all this hurly-burly in my head existed for nobody.”
― Simone de Beauvoir, quote from Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter

“البشر ليسوا أرواحاً وانما هم أجساد فريسة الحاجة ملقاة في مغامرة قاسية”
― Simone de Beauvoir, quote from Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter

“One afternoon Clairaut came over to me with a book in his hand: “Mademoiselle de Beauvoir,” he began, in an inquisitorial tone, “what do you make of Brochard who is of the opinion that Aristotle’s God would be able to experience sexual pleasure?” Herbaud cast him a disdainful look: “I should hope so, for his sake,” he haughtily replied.”
― Simone de Beauvoir, quote from Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter

“La stupidità ci faceva ridere, era uno dei nostri grandi motivi di spasso, ma aveva anche qualcosa di spaventevole. Se avesse prevalso, non avremmo più avuto il diritto di pensare, di prendere in giro, di provare veri desideri, veri piaceri. Bisognava combatterla o rinunciare a vivere.”
― Simone de Beauvoir, quote from Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter

“الكاتب يخون يأسه بمجرد أن يكتب عنه كتاباً”
― Simone de Beauvoir, quote from Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter

“Mais le pire, quand on habite une prison sans barreaux, c'est qu'on n'a pas même conscience des écrans qui bouchent l'horizon; j'errais à travers un épais brouillard, et je le croyais transparent. Les choses qui m'échappaient, je n'en entrevoyais même pas la présence.”
― Simone de Beauvoir, quote from Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter

“If I had rediscovered in Heaven, amplified to infinity, the monstrous alliance of fragility and implacability, of caprice and artificial necessity which had oppressed me since my birth, rather than worship Him I would have chosen damnation.”
― Simone de Beauvoir, quote from Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter

“Peut-être vas-tu me trouver ridicule, mais je me mépriserais de n'oser l'être jamais.”
― Simone de Beauvoir, quote from Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter

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