Q0109

Simone de Beauvoir

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

To will oneself free is also to will others free.
Thinker Simone de Beauvoir
School Existentialism
Source The Ethics of Ambiguity
Theme Freedom
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with The Ethics of Ambiguity, within the tradition of Existentialism. The wording below is a verified rendering prepared for careful reading rather than a claim of unique translation authority.

A short reading

Read in the register of freedom, the sentence asks the reader to test an assumption rather than to collect a slogan. In Simone de Beauvoir's wider work, similar claims are usually offered as prompts for judgment: what would have to be true for the sentence to hold, and what would follow if it did?

How to cite this quotation

APA: Simone de Beauvoir. (n.d.). To will oneself free is also to will others free. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0109

MLA: Simone de Beauvoir. “To will oneself free is also to will….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0109.

Chicago: Simone de Beauvoir. “To will oneself free is also to will….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0109.

Same thinker

More from Simone de Beauvoir

  1. One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.
  2. The freedom of others… conditions my freedom.

All quotations by Simone de Beauvoir

Same theme

More on freedom

  1. Extreme freedom seems to change into nothing but extreme slavery.
  2. Of things, some are in our power, and some are not.
  3. It is not things that disturb people, but their judgments about things.
  4. He who has learned how to die has unlearned how to be a slave.
  5. If you are distressed by anything external, it is not the thing itself that disturbs you, but your own judgment about it.

Browse the freedom theme