Simone de Beauvoir — Quote from The Prime of Life
“I am awfully greedy; I want everything from life. I want to be a woman and to be a man, to have many friends and to have loneliness.”
The Prime of Life (1960)
Concepts: authenticity, loneliness, meaning
Resonant Quotes
- “A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other ...” — Thomas Mann, Essays of Three Decades Both quotes reveal how creative souls are distinguished by their heightened sensitivity to difficulty and desire—Mann...
- “You cannot find peace by avoiding life.” — Virginia Woolf, The Voyage Out Both writers advocate for total immersion in life's contradictions—de Beauvoir's greedy embrace of opposing desires a...
- “The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection, that one is ...” — George Orwell, Reflections on Gandhi Both quotes celebrate human imperfection and contradiction—de Beauvoir's desire for mutually exclusive experiences mi...
- “Whoever has learned to be alone with himself knows only too well how hard it ...” — Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human Both philosophers explore the paradox of solitude — de Beauvoir's simultaneous desire for loneliness and companionshi...
- “We do not know what we want and yet we are responsible for what we are — that...” — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness De Beauvoir's greedy wanting of contradictory experiences exemplifies Sartre's existentialist insight that we are res...
- “Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling ...” — Rainer Maria Rilke, The Book of Hours Both articulate a radical openness to the full spectrum of human experience, with de Beauvoir's existential greed fin...
- “Solitude is that human situation in which I keep myself company. Loneliness c...” — Hannah Arendt, The Life of the Mind De Beauvoir's desire to contain contradictory experiences resonates with Arendt's 'two-in-one' as both describe the h...
- “There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Ju...” — Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus Both address fundamental attitudes toward existence—Camus confronts the question of whether life is worth living whil...