Jean-Paul Sartre Quotes

How can I, who was not able to retain my own past, hope to save that of another?

I have no need for good souls: an accomplice is what I wanted.

You are -- your life, and nothing else.

There are two kinds of existentialist; first, those who are Christian...and on the other hand the atheistic existentialists, among whom...I class myself. What they have in common is that they think that existence precedes essence, or, if you prefer, that subjectivity must be the turning point.

What is life but an unpleasant interruption to a peaceful nonexistence.

Man's existence precedes his essence

A writer who takes political, social or literary positions must act only with the means that are his. These means are the written words.

I am a man, Jupiter, and each man must invent his own path.

Things are entirely what they appear to be and behind them... there is nothing.

Every existing thing is born without reason, prolongs itself out of weakness, and dies by chance.

There were days when you peered into yourself, into the secret places of your heart, and what you saw there made you faint with horror. And then, next day, you didn't know what to make of it,you couldn't interpret the horror you had glimpsed the day before. Yes, you know what evil costs.

He is always becoming, and if it were not for the contingency of death, he would never end.

It is certain that we cannot escape anguish, for we are anguish.

I respect orders but I respect myself too and I do not obey foolish rules made especially to humiliate me.

Ah! How I hate the crimes of the new generation: they are dry and sterile as darnel.

I admire [Samuel] Beckett, but I am totally against him. He seeks no improvement.

A kiss without a moustache, they said then, is like an egg without salt; I will add to it: and it is like Good without Evil.

With a little luck that epoch may arrive. I am on the side of those who think that things will go better when the world has changed.

In Les Mots I explain the origin of my madness, of my neurosis. This analysis may help the young who dream of writing.

Every word has consequences. Every silence, too.

[Lost of the absolute] is in this sense that ''I no longer know what to do with my life" must be understood. Critics have been mistaken about the meaning of this phrase, seeing in it a cry of despair as in Simone de Beauvoir's "I have been cheated." When she uses this word it is to indicate that she claims from life an absolute which she cannot find there.

Heroism is not to be won at the point of a pen.

So long as one believes in God, one has the right to do the Good in order to be moral.

Take [Stéphane] Mallarme. I hold him to be the greatest of French poets, and I have taken some time to understand him !

Night is falling: at dusk, you must have good eyesight to be able to tell the Good Lord from the Devil.

Life has no meaning the moment you lose the illusion of being eternal.

Ideas come in pairs and they contradict one another; their opposition is the principal engine of reflection.

There may be more beautiful times, but this one is ours.

There are two ways of destroying a people. Either condemn them en bloc or force them to repudiate the leaders they adopted. The second is the worse.

I know. I know that I shall never again meet anything or anybody who will inspire me with passion. You know, it's quite a job starting to love somebody. You have to have energy, generosity, blindness. There is even a moment, in the very beginning, when you have to jump across a precipice: if you think about it you don't do it. I know I'll never jump again.

Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.

Ah! yes, I know: those who see me rarely trust my word: I must look too intelligent to keep it.

For forty years I was conscripted by the absolute, the neurosis. The absolute is gone. There remain countless tasks among which literature is in no way privileged.

Once freedom lights its beacon in man's heart, the gods are powerless against him.

In love, one and one are one.

I was escaping from Nature and at last becoming myself, that Other whom I was aspiring to be in the eyes of others.

It is disgusting -- Why must we have bodies?

One could only damage oneself through the harm one did to others. One could never get directly at oneself.

Once you hear the details of victory, it is hard to distinguish it from a defeat.

Ha! to forget. How childish! I feel you in my bones. Your silence screams in my ears. You may nail your mouth shut, you may cut out your tongue, can you keep yourself from existing? Will you stop your thoughts.

[M]an is condemned to be free. Condemned, because he did not create himself, in other respect is free; because, once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does. The Existentialist does not believe in the power of passion. He will never agree that a sweeping passion is a ravaging torrent which fatally leads a man to certain acts and is therefore an excuse. He thinks that man is responsible for his passion.

Nothingness lies coiled in the heart of being - like a worm.

I confused things with their names: that is belief.

You see, I'm fond of teasing, it's a second nature with me—and I'm used to teasing myself. Plaguing myself, if you prefer; I don't tease nicely.

He walked on in silence, the solitary sound of his footsteps echoing in his head, as in a deserted street, at dawn. His solitude was so complete, beneath a lovely sky as mellow and serene as a good conscience, amid that busy throng, that he was amazed at his own existence; he must be somebody else's nightmare, and whoever it was would certainly awaken soon.

I tell you in truth: all men are Prophets or else God does not exist.

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

If I became a philosopher, if I have so keenly sought this fame for which I'm still waiting, it's all been to seduce women basically.