Simone de Beauvoir on Present

“We must not confuse the present with the past. With regard to the past, no further action is possible.”

“The present is not a potential past; it is the moment of choice and action; we can not avoid living it through a project; and there is no project which is purely contemplative since one always projects himself toward something, toward the future; to put oneself "outside" is still a way of living the inescapable fact that one is inside.”