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
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.
One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.
To will oneself free is already to have freed oneself.
Related Quotes
Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.
-- Marcus Aurelius
Courage begins the difficult deed, but fortune governs its outcome.
-- Democritus
The beginning is half of the whole.
-- Aristotle
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
-- Laozi
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.
-- Simone de Beauvoir
Let nothing define us. Let nothing subjugate us. Let freedom be our very substance.
-- Simone de Beauvoir