Jean-Paul Sartre Quotes About Existentialism

Quotes about: Existentialism

• Everything has been figured out, except how to live.

  Jean-Paul Sartre

  Life, Spiritual, Witty

  Jean-Paul Sartre (2012). “Essays in Aesthetics”, p.13, Open Road Media

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

  Jean-Paul Sartre

  Life, Existentialism, Moments

  Jean-Paul Sartre (2012). “Essays in Aesthetics”, p.11, Open Road Media

• He was free, free in every way, free to behave like a fool or a machine, free to accept, free to refuse, free to equivocate; to marry, to give up the game, to drag this death weight about with him for years to come. He could do what he liked, no one had the right to advise him, there would be for him no Good or Evil unless he thought them into being.

  Jean-Paul Sartre

  Giving Up, Years, Games

  "The Age of Reason". Book by Jean-Paul Sartre, 1945.

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

  Jean-Paul Sartre

  Life, Freedom, Responsibility

  Martin Heidegger, Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre (2016). “The Philosophical Library Existentialism Collection: Essays in Metaphysics, The Ethics of Ambiguity, and The Philosophy of Existentialism”, p.167, Open Road Media

• I want to leave, to go somewhere where I should be really in my place, where I would fit in . . . but my place is nowhere; I am unwanted.

  Jean-Paul Sartre

  Nausea, Want, Existentialism

• Life begins on the other side of despair.

  Jean-Paul Sartre

  Inspirational, Life, Philosophical

  Jean-Paul Sartre, Lloyd Alexander (1964). “Nausea”, p.9, New Directions Publishing

• Words are loaded pistols.

  Jean-Paul Sartre

  Thought Provoking, Pistols, Existentialism

  Jean-Paul Sartre (2012). “Essays in Aesthetics”, p.13, Open Road Media

• Anything, anything would be better than this agony of mind, this creeping pain that gnaws and fumbles and caresses one and never hurts quite enough.

  Jean-Paul Sartre

  Hurt, Pain, Agony

  Jean-Paul Sartre (1946). “The flies (Les mouches): and, In camera (Huit clos)”

• Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself. [It is a matter of choice, not chance.] Such is the first principle of existentialism.

  Jean-Paul Sartre

  Men, Choices, Matter

• We do not know what we want and yet we are responsible for what we are - that is the fact.

  Jean-Paul Sartre

  Philosophy, Philosophical, Want

• Man can will nothing unless he has first understood that he must count on no one but himself; that he is alone, abandoned on earth in the midst of his infinite responsibilities, without help, with no other aim than the one he sets himself, with no other destiny than the one he forges for himself on this earth.

  Jean-Paul Sartre

  Responsibility, Destiny, Men

• In life man commits himself and draws his own portrait, outside of which there is nothing. No doubt this thought may seem harsh to someone who has not made a success of his life. But on the other hand, it helps people to understand that reality alone counts, and that dreams, expectations and hopes only serve to define a man as a broken dream, aborted hopes, and futile expectations.

  Jean-Paul Sartre

  Dream, Reality, Men

• Fascism is not defined by the number of its victims, but by the way it kills them.

  Jean-Paul Sartre

  Military, Philosophical, Numbers

  "On the Execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg," Libération, June 22, 1953.

• Don't you feel the same way? When I cannot see myself, even though I touch myself, I wonder if I really exist.

  Jean-Paul Sartre

  Way, Existentialism, Wonder

  "No Exit". Play by Jean-Paul Sartre, Act 1, sc. 5, 1944.

• Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself.

  Jean-Paul Sartre

  Graduation, Freedom, Responsibility

  Jean-Paul Sartre (2012). “The Philosophy of Existentialism: Selected Essays”, p.22, Open Road Media

• Our responsibility is much greater than we might have supposed, because it involves all mankind.

  Jean-Paul Sartre

  Responsibility, Might, Existentialism

  Martin Heidegger, Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre (2016). “The Philosophical Library Existentialism Collection: Essays in Metaphysics, The Ethics of Ambiguity, and The Philosophy of Existentialism”, p.165, Open Road Media

• I exist, that is all, and I find it nauseating.

  Jean-Paul Sartre

  Existentialism, Existence

  "Nausea". Book by Jean-Paul Sartre, 1938.

• 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.

  Jean-Paul Sartre

  Mean, Men, Essence

  Martin Heidegger, Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre (2016). “The Philosophical Library Existentialism Collection: Essays in Metaphysics, The Ethics of Ambiguity, and The Philosophy of Existentialism”, p.164, Open Road Media

• I have crossed the seas, I have left cities behind me, and I have followed the source of rivers towards their source or plunged into forests, always making for other cities. I have had women, I have fought with men ; and I could never turn back any more than a record can spin in reverse. And all that was leading me where ? To this very moment.

  Jean-Paul Sartre

  Men, Sea, Cities

• Death is a continuation of my life without me.

  Jean-Paul Sartre

  Death, Existentialism, Continuation

  Jean-Paul Sartre (2012). “Essays in Aesthetics”, p.14, Open Road Media

• There is no human nature, since there is no god to conceive it.

  Jean-Paul Sartre

  Existentialism, Human Nature, There Is No God

  Martin Heidegger, Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre (2016). “The Philosophical Library Existentialism Collection: Essays in Metaphysics, The Ethics of Ambiguity, and The Philosophy of Existentialism”, p.164, Open Road Media

• One is still what one is going to cease to be and already what one is going to become. One lives one's death, one dies one's life.

  Jean-Paul Sartre

  Death, Existence Of Life, Existentialism

  Jean-Paul Sartre (2012). “Saint Genet: Actor and Martyr”, p.2, U of Minnesota Press

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

  Jean-Paul Sartre

  Men, Firsts, Existentialism

  Jean-Paul Sartre (2012). “Essays in Aesthetics”, p.14, Open Road Media

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

  Jean-Paul Sartre

  Hate, Generations, Dry

  "The Flies". Play by Jean-Paul Sartre, Act 2, 1943.

• 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.

  Jean-Paul Sartre

  Jobs, Passion, Thinking

  Jean-Paul Sartre (2013). “Nausea”, p.128, New Directions Publishing

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