The present is not a potential past; it is the moment of choice and action.
Le présent n’est pas un passé en puissance, il est le moment du choix et de l’action.
Philosophers
Simone de Beauvoir
Existentialist philosopher and feminist pioneer born in Paris in 1908. In The Second Sex she argued that womanhood is socially constructed, reshaping gender theory and grounding modern feminism.
View this figure's profile
Simone de Beauvoir's Other Quotes
One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.
To will oneself free is already to have freed oneself.
It is in the knowledge of the true conditions of our life that we must draw our strength to live and our reasons to act.
Let nothing define us. Let nothing subjugate us. Let freedom be our very substance.
Related Quotes
Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.
-- Marcus Aurelius
The beginning is half of the whole.
-- Aristotle
Courage begins the difficult deed, but fortune governs its outcome.
-- Democritus
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
-- Laozi
Existence precedes essence.
-- Jean-Paul Sartre
We are our choices.
-- Jean-Paul Sartre