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I am too intelligent, too demanding, and too resourceful for anyone to take charge of me entirely.

Simone de Beauvoir, diary, 1927

Philosophy

The story behind the card

Beauvoir wrote this in her diary in 1927, aged nineteen, while she was studying philosophy in Paris, two years before she met Jean-Paul Sartre. The entry continues: no one knows or loves her completely, and she has only herself. The diary stayed unpublished for decades; the philosopher Margaret A. Simons quoted the passage in a 1999 study, and the student diaries were later published in French and English. Beauvoir never married, and her open partnership with Sartre lasted until his death in 1980.

Türkçe oku
Kimsenin beni bütünüyle yönetemeyeceği kadar zeki, talepkâr ve becerikliyim.
Simone de Beauvoir, günlük, 1927

Beauvoir bu cümleyi 1927'de, on dokuz yaşında, Paris'te felsefe okurken günlüğüne yazdı; Jean-Paul Sartre'la tanışmasına daha iki yıl vardı. Devamında, kimsenin onu tam olarak tanımadığını ya da sevmediğini, yalnızca kendisine sahip olduğunu söyler. Günlük uzun yıllar yayımlanmadı. Felsefeci Margaret A. Simons pasajı 1999'daki bir incelemesinde aktardı; öğrencilik günlükleri de sonradan Fransızca ve İngilizce yayımlandı. Beauvoir hiç evlenmedi; Sartre'la açık ilişkisi, Sartre'ın 1980'deki ölümüne dek sürdü.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Simone de Beauvoir
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