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Jean-Paul Sartre Quotes - Page 17

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In a country lacking leaders, in Africa, for instance, how could a native educated in Europe refuse to become a professor, even at the price of his literary vocation?

In a country lacking leaders, in Africa, for instance, how could a native educated in Europe refuse to become a professor, even at the price of his literary vocation?

Jean-Paul Sartre
Country, Europe, Leader

The For-itself, in fact, is nothing but the pure nihilation of the In-itself; it is like a hole of being at the heart of Being.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Heart, Facts, Holes
Jean-Paul Sartre (2002). “Jean-Paul Sartre: Basic Writings”, p.125, Routledge

Abjection is a methodological conversion, like Cartesian doubt and Husserlian epoche: it establishes the world as a closed system which consciousness regards from without, in the manner of divine understanding.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Understanding, Doubt, World
"Saint Genet, Actor and Martyr". Book by Jean-Paul Sartre, 141, 1952.

I have always been happy. Even if I had been more honest with regard to myself at that moment I should still have written La Nausee.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Honest, Moments, That Moment

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

Jean-Paul Sartre
Dream, Writing, Analysis

Do you think I can read [Alain] Robbe-Grillet in an underdeveloped country? He does not feel himself maimed.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Country, Thinking, Doe

Thrown into the atmosphere of action [in 1954], I suddenly understood the kind of neurosis that dominated all my previous work. I had not been able to recognize it before: I was inside. Simone de Beauvoir had guessed these reasons before I did.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Atmosphere, Neurosis, Able

You see, the contemporary writer must write through his intimations of unease, while trying to elucidate them.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Writing, Trying, Contemporary

Happiness has to be installed in each person as a state of affairs completely cut off from the process that brought it about and, in particular, from the real situation. Man has to be affected with happiness. It is a tonality given to him. Contradiction: if one does take care to give him happiness, it is because he is a free creature--but in order to give it to him, one turns him into an object.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Real, Cutting, Men
Jean-Paul Sartre (1992). “Notebooks for an Ethics”, p.202, University of Chicago Press

In the nineteenth century one had to give all sorts of guarantees and lead an exemplary life in order to cleanse oneself in the eyes of the bourgeois of the sin of writing, for literature is, in essence, heresy. The situation has not changed except that it is now the Communists, that is, the qualified representatives of the proletariat, who as a matter of principle regard the writer as suspect.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Writing, Eye, Order

In any case, if you ever leave me with a handsome man, do not tell me that you trust me because, let me warn you: that is not what will prevent me from deceiving you, if I want to. On the contrary.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Men, Want, Handsome
"Dirty Hands". Book by Jean-Paul Sartre, Act 3, sc. 5, 1948.

I’ve dropped out of their hearts like a little sparrow fallen from its nest. So gather me up, dear, fold me to your heart – and you’ll see how nice I can be.

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

My eyes feel all soft, all soft as flesh. I'm going to sleep.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Sleep, Eye, Flesh
Jean-Paul Sartre (2010). “The Wall: (Intimacy) and Other Stories”, p.59, New Directions Publishing

For common minds have an ugly ability to perceive in the deepest and richest saying nothing but their own everyday opinion.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Mind, Everyday, Saying Nothing

God is the solitude of men. There was only me: I alone decided to commit Evil; alone, I invented Good. I am the one who cheated, I am the one who performed miracles, I am the one accusing myself today, I alone can absolve myself; me, the man.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Men, Evil, Miracle
"The Devil and the Good Lord". Book by Jean-Paul Sartre, Act 10, sc. 4, 1951.

It is not a matter of indifference whether we like oysters or clams, snails or shrimp, if only we know how to unravel the existential significance of these foods.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Oysters, Shrimp, Matter
Jean-Paul Sartre (2012). “Being and Nothingness”, p.617, Open Road Media

Remember, Orestes: you were part of my herd, you grazed in the fields along with my sheep. Your liberty is nothing but a mange eating away at you, it is nothing but an exile.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Sheep, Liberty, Fields
"The Flies". Play by Jean-Paul Sartre, Jupiter, Act 3, 1943.

I consider Les Nourritures Terrestres as a frightening book: "Look for God in no other place than everywhere." Go and tell that to a workman, an engineer!

Jean-Paul Sartre
Book, Looks, Workmen

There is no book of mine that I reject. That does not mean that I find them good.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Book, Mean, Doe

A pale reflection of myself wavers in my consciousness...and suddenly the “I” pales, pales, and fades out.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Reflection, Consciousness, Pale

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

Jean-Paul Sartre
Fall, Night, Devil

It is not right, my fellow-countrymen, you who know very well all the crimes committed in our name. It's not at all right that you do not breathe a word about them to anyone, not even to your own soul, for fear of having to stand in judgment of yourself. I am willing to believe that at the beginning you did not realize what was happening; later, you doubted whether such things could be true; but now you know, and still you hold your tongues.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Believe, Names, Soul

When my relations with the Communist Party gave me the necessary perspective I decided to write my autobiography. I wanted to show how a man can pass from literature held sacred to action which nevertheless remains that of an intellectual.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Party, Writing, Men

Therefore, in the nature of this will for freedom, which freedom itself implies, I may pass judgement on those who seek to hide from themselves the complete arbitrariness and the complete freedom of their existence.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Judgement, May, Existence

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

Jean-Paul Sartre
Nature, Eye, Escaping

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