Simone de Beauvoir — "To be happy, one must be free."
To be happy, one must be free.
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More from Simone de Beauvoir
"I am a woman who writes, and I am a woman who lives."
"In the face of an obstacle which is impossible to overcome, stubbornness is stupid."
"If you live long enough, you'll make mistakes. But if you learn from them, you'll be a better person."
"Change your life today. Don't gamble on the future, act now, without delay."
"I am going to die, and I will not be able to write anymore. This is a very serious problem."
About Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986)
French existentialist philosopher whose The Second Sex (1949) is the foundational text of modern feminist theory. Closely associated with Jean-Paul Sartre (lifetime partner and existentialist co-founder) and Albert Camus (existentialist contemporary in Paris). For an intellectual contrast, see Camille Paglia, American cultural critic and Sexual Personae author — Paglia argues for biological-essentialist roots of gender that Beauvoir's social-construction view — 'one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman' — explicitly rejects. The two are the cleanest constructed-vs-essentialist poles in feminist theory.
The standard scholarly entry points to Simone de Beauvoir's work: Toril Moi (Duke, James B. Duke Distinguished Professor) — Simone de Beauvoir: The Making of an Intellectual Woman (1994); Margaret A. Simons (Southern Illinois University, Emerita) — Beauvoir and The Second Sex (1999); Kate Kirkpatrick (Oxford, Regent's Park College) — Becoming Beauvoir: A Life (2019). These are the works graduate seminars cite when teaching Simone de Beauvoir.