“When she does not find love, she may find poetry. Because she does not act, she observes, she feels, she records; a color, a smile awakens profound echoes within her; her destiny is outside her, scattered in cities already built, on the faces of men already marked by life, she makes contact, she relishes with passion and yet in a manner more detached, more free, than that of a young man. Being poorly integrated in the universe of humanity and hardly able to adapt herself therein, she, like the child, is able to see it objectively; instead of being interested solely in her grasp on things, she looks for their significance; she catches their special outlines, their unexpected metamorphoses. She rarely feels a bold creativeness, and usually she lacks the technique of self-expression; but in her conversation, her letters, her literary essays, her sketches, she manifests an original sensitivity. The young girl throws herself into things with ardor, because she is not yet deprived of her transcendence; and the fact that she accomplishes nothing, that she is nothing, will make her impulses only the more passionate. Empty and unlimited, she seeks from within her nothingness to attain All.”

"Regardless of the staggering dimensions of the world about us, the density of our ignorance, the risks of catastrophes to come, and our individual weakness within the immense collectivity, the fact remains that we are absolutely free today if we choose to will our existence in its finiteness, a finiteness which is open on the infinite. And in fact, any man who has known real loves, real revolts, real desires, and real will knows quite well that he has no need of any outside guarantee to be sure of his goals; their certitude comes from his own drive."

"Que nada dos defina. Que nada nos sujeite. Que a liberdade seja a nossa própria substância."

"O Segundo Sexo" (Vol. 1)

"(...) o triunfo do patriarcado não foi nem um acaso nem o resultado de uma revolução violenta. Desde a origem da humanidade, o privilégio biológico permitiu aos homens afirmarem-se sozinhos como sujeitos soberanos. Eles nunca abdicaram do privilégio (...). Condenada a desempenhar o papel do Outro, a mulher estava também condenada a possuir apenas uma força precária: escrava ou ídolo, nunca é ela quem escolhe o seu destino. «Os homens fazem os deuses; as mulheres adoram-nos», diz Frazer. São eles quem decide se as divindades supremas devem ser femininas ou masculinas. O lugar da mulher na sociedade é sempre estabelecido por eles."

"O Segundo Sexo" (Vol. 1)

"Há, em todos os psicanalistas, uma recusa sistemática da ideia de escolha (...); é o que constitui a fraqueza intrínseca do sistema."