Man can will nothing unless he has first understood that he must count on no one but himself.

Nothingness haunts Being.

A man who is free is like a mangy sheep in a herd. He will contaminate my entire kingdom and ruin my work.

It’s the well-behaved children that make the most formidable revolutionaries. They don’t say a word, they don’t hide under the table, they eat only one piece of chocolate at a time. But later on, they make society pay dearly.

Il n'y a de réalité que dans l'action. (There is no reality except in action.)

What is meant here by saying that existence precedes essence? It means first of all, man exists, turns up, appears on the scene, and, only afterwards, defines himself. If man, as the existentialist conceives him, is indefinable, it is because at first he is nothing. Only afterward will he be something, and he himself will have made what he will be.

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.