The Ethics of Ambiguity

by Simone de Beauvoir

Since we do not succeed in fleeing it, let us therefore try to look the truth in the face. Let us try to assume our fundamental ambiguity. It is in the knowledge of the genuine conditions of our life that we must draw our strength to live and our reason for acting.

favorite quote so far.

By uprooting himself from the world, man makes himself present to the world and makes the world present to him.

To attain his truth, man must not attempt to dispel the ambiguity of his being but, on the contrary, accept the task of realizing it.

Man exists. For him it is not a question of wondering whether his presence in the world is useful, whether life is worth the trouble of being lived. These questions make no sense. It is a matter of knowing whether he wants to live and under what conditions.

Ok, then Simone

To will oneself moral and to will oneself free are one and the same decision.