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Jean-Paul Sartre Quotes - Page 13

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Man's existence precedes his essence

Man's existence precedes his essence

Jean-Paul Sartre
Men, Essence, Human Nature

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

Jean-Paul Sartre
Improvement, Admire, Beckett

A writer must refuse to allow himself to be transformed into an institution.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Humility, Institutions, Refuse
Declaration read at Stockholm, 22 Oct. 1964, refusing the Nobel Prize, in Michel Contat and Michel Rybalka (eds.) Les crits de Sartre (1970) p. 403

Existence is prior to essence.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Essence, Existence
Jean-Paul Sartre (2002). “Jean-Paul Sartre: Basic Writings”, p.29, Routledge

I have changed as everyone changes: within a permanency.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Changed, I Have Changed

Existence precedes and rules essence.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Philosophical, Essence, Existence
L'°tre et le n‚ant (Being and Nothingness, 1943) pt. 4, ch. 1

emotion is first of all and in principle an accident

Jean-Paul Sartre
Principles, Firsts, Emotion
Jean-Paul Sartre (2012). “The Philosophy of Existentialism: Selected Essays”, p.111, Open Road Media

Neither sex, without some fertilization of the complimentary characters of the other, is capable of the highest reaches of human endeavor.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Sex, Character, Endeavor
Jean-Paul Sartre (2012). “Essays in Aesthetics”, p.12, Open Road Media

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

Jean-Paul Sartre
Spiritual, Spirituality, Behinds
Jean-Paul Sartre (2007). “Nausea”, p.96, New Directions Publishing

All-powerful god, who am I but the fear that I inspire in others?

Jean-Paul Sartre
Powerful, Inspire, Powerful God
"The Flies". Book by Jean-Paul Sartre, Act 2, 1943.

I wrote in Les Mots that "I have often thought against myself." That sentence has not been understood either. Critics have seen in it a confession of masochism. But that is how one should think: revolting against everything "inculcated'' that one may have within oneself.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Thinking, May, Confession

Words There is no good father, that's the rule. Don't lay the blame on men but on the bond of paternity, which is rotten. To beget children, nothing better; to have them, what iniquity!

Jean-Paul Sartre
Children, Father, Men
Les Mots (The Words, 1964) "Lire"

Listen to me: a family man is never a real family man. An assassin is never entirely assassin. They play a role, you understand. While a dead man, he is really dead. To be or not to be, right?

Jean-Paul Sartre
Real, Men, Play
"Dirty Hands". Play by Jean-Paul Sartre (Act 4, Scene 6), April 2, 1948.

I have nothing but contempt for you idiotic chosen ones who have the heart to rejoice when there are the damned in Hell and the poor on earth; as for me, I am on the side of men and I will not leave it.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Heart, Men, Sides
"The Devil and the Good Lord". Book by Jean-Paul Sartre, Act 6, sc. 6, 1951.

To eat is to appropriate by destruction.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Existentialism, Destruction, Appropriate
"Being and Nothingness: An Essay on Phenomenological Ontology". Book by Jean-Paul Sartre, Part 3: Being-For-Others, 1943.

The painful secret of gods and kings is that men are free, Aegistheus. You know it and they do not.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Kings, Men, Secret
"The Flies". Book by Jean-Paul Sartre, Jupiter, Act 2, 1943.

In order to make myself recognized by the Other, I must risk my own life. To risk one's life, in fact, is to reveal oneself as not-bound to the objective form or to any determined existence — as not-bound to life.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Order, Risk, Facts
Jean-Paul Sartre, Hazel Estella Barnes (1992). “Being and Nothingness”, p.320, Simon and Schuster

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

Jean-Paul Sartre
Heroism, Pens

I do not understand! I understand nothing! I cannot understand nor do I want to understand! I want to believe! To Believe!

Jean-Paul Sartre
Believe, Want, Belief
"Le Diable et le Bon Dieu (The Devil and the Good Lord)". Play by Jean-Paul Sartre (Act 1), June 7, 1951.

Existence is not something which lets itself be thought of form a distance; it must invade you suddenly, master you, weigh heavily on your heart like a great motionless beast - or else there is nothing at all.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Distance, Heart, Nausea
Jean-Paul Sartre, Lloyd Alexander (1964). “Nausea”, p.132, New Directions Publishing

What do I care about Jupiter? Justice is a human issue, and I do not need a god to teach it to me.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Philosophical, Umpires, Issues
"The Flies". Play by Jean-Paul Sartre, Orestes, Act 2, 1943.

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

Jean-Paul Sartre
Damage, Harm, Oneself

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)”

I am finishing a biography of [Gustave] Flaubert. Because he is the opposite of what I am. One needs to rub up against argument.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Opposites, Needs, Biographies

The world would get along very well without literature. It would get along even better without man.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Men, Literature, World

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