Man is abandoned on earth in the midst of his infinite responsibilities, without help, with no aim but what he sets himself.

People who live in society have learnt how to see themselves, in mirrors, as they appear to their friends. I have no friends: is that why my flesh is so naked?

What do we mean by saying that existence precedes essence? We mean that man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world-and defines himself afterward.

What I ask of [the writer] is not to ignore the reality and the fundamental problems that exist. The world's hunger, the atomic threat, the alienation of man, I am astonished that they do not color all our literature.

Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself.

The plight of modern man is that he is condemmed to be free.

It is meaningless that we are born, it is meaningless that we die.