Authors:

Jean-Paul Sartre Quotes - Page 6

All Quotes Acting Adventure Age Alienation Atheist Children Choices Commitment Consciousness Country Desire Doubt Earth Evil Existentialism Feelings Freedom Generosity Giving Hate Hatred Heart Heaven Hell History Human Nature Inspirational Judgement Judging Language Liberty Life Literature Love Lying Memories Morality Nothingness Passion Past Peace Philosophy Politics Purpose Reality Reflection Responsibility Revolution Silence Sleep Solitude Soul Suffering Universe Values Violence Virtue Waiting War Water Writing
I will not be modest. Humble, as much as you like, but not modest. Modesty is the virtue of the lukewarm.

I will not be modest. Humble, as much as you like, but not modest. Modesty is the virtue of the lukewarm.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Humble, Modesty, Virtue
"The Devil and the Good Lord". Book by Jean-Paul Sartre, Act 4, sc. 5, 1951.

Uncalled-for aggression arouses the hatred of the civilian population.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Peace, War, Hatred

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.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Sky, Silence, Solitude

Intellectuals cannot be good revolutionaries; they are just good enough to be assassins.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Assassins, Revolutionary, Enough
"Dirty Hands". Play by Jean-Paul Sartre, Act 5, sc. 3, 1948.

There are two types of poor people, those who are poor together and those who are poor alone. The first are the true poor, the others are rich people out of luck.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Two, People, Deep Thought
"The Devil and the Good Lord". Book by Jean-Paul Sartre, act 4, sc. 5, 1951.

One of the chief motives of artistic creation is certainly the need of feeling that we are essential in relationship to the world.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Motivation, Feelings, Essentials
Jean-Paul Sartre (2012). “Literature & Existentialism”, p.21, Open Road Media

Evil is the product of the ability of humans to make abstract that which is concrete.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Philosophical, Judging, Evil

With despair, true optimism begins: the optimism of the man who expects nothing, who knows he has no rights and nothing coming to him, who rejoices in counting on himself alone and in acting alone for the good of all.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Men, Rights, Optimism
Jean-Paul Sartre, Michel Rybalka, Michel Contat, Richard C. McCleary (1985). “The Writings of Jean-Paul Sartre”, p.159, Northwestern University Press

Nothing happens while you live. The scenery changes, people come in and go out, that's all. There are no beginnings. Days are tacked on to days without rhyme or reason, an interminable, monotonous addition.

Jean-Paul Sartre
People, Nausea, Reason
Jean-Paul Sartre (2013). “Nausea”, p.45, New Directions Publishing

To believe is to know you believe, and to know you believe is not to believe.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Spiritual, Atheist, Believe
"The Wretched of the Earth". Book by Frantz Fanon, 1961.

This then is the age of reason.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Age, Reason, Age Of Reason

Acting is a question of absorbing other people's personalities and adding some of your own experience.

Jean-Paul Sartre
People, Personality, Acting

He loves me, he doesn't love my bowels, if they showed him my appendix in a glass he wouldn't recognize it, he's always feeling me, but if they put the glass in his hands he wouldn't touch it, he wouldn't think, "that's hers," you ought to love all of somebody, the esophagus, the liver, the intestines. Maybe we don't love them because we aren't used to them, but if we saw them the way we saw our hands and arms maybe we'd love them; the starfish must love each other better than we do.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Thinking, Glasses, Hands
Jean-Paul Sartre (2010). “The Wall: (Intimacy) and Other Stories”, p.56, New Directions Publishing

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

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.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Two, People, Leader
Jean-Paul Sartre (1960). “Loser wins: (Les séquestrés d'Altona : a play in five acts”

People who live in society have learnt how to see themselves, in mirrors, as they appear to their friends. I have no friends: is that why my flesh is so naked?

Jean-Paul Sartre
Mirrors, People, No Friends
Jean-Paul Sartre (2013). “Nausea”, p.28, New Directions Publishing

One does not adopt a new idea, one slips into it.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Ideas, Doe, New Ideas

What then did you expect when you unbound the gag that muted those black mouths? That they would chant your praises? Did you think that when those heads that our fathers had forcibly bowed down to the ground were raised again, you would find adoration in their eyes?

Jean-Paul Sartre
Father, Eye, Thinking
"Orphée Noir". Book by Jean-Paul Sartre, Preface, 1948.

The viable jewels of life remain untouched when man forgets his vocation of searching for the truth of his existence.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Men, Jewels, Forget

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

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

I confused things with their names: that is belief.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Confused, Names, Belief
Les Mots (The Words, 1964) "crire"

Man is condemned to be free

Jean-Paul Sartre
Freedom, Philosophy, Philosophical
1946 L'Existentialisme est un humanisme (Existentialism and Humanism,1948) (translated by Philip Mairet).

That’s what existence means: draining one’s own self dry without the sense of thirst.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Mean, Self, Dry

I suppose it is out of laziness that the world is the same day after day. Today it seemed to want to change. And then anything, anything could happen.

Jean-Paul Sartre
World, Laziness, Want
Jean-Paul Sartre (2013). “Nausea”, p.75, New Directions Publishing

When she is alone in the rooms I hear her humming to keep herself from thinking.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Thinking, Rooms, Chaos
Jean-Paul Sartre (2013). “Nausea”, p.23, New Directions Publishing

You May Also Like: