Simone de Beauvoir. The second floor (№ 278337)

Men appreciate their own kind in accordance with what he has done, objectively, guided by accepted standards. But some of its properties, in particular properties related directly to life, may only be interested in a woman; it can be courageous, charismatic, successful, tender, cruel only in relation to it: and if he appreciates those not-so-obvious qualities, his need for a woman becomes the absolute; through her he learns of a miracle to see myself as Other - Other, which at the same time, his deepest "I".