Like all dreamers, I mistook disenchantment for truth.
—Jean-Paul Sartre
Topics: Truth
Man is a useless passion.
—Jean-Paul Sartre
Topics: Humankind, Humanity
The writer is committed when he plunges to the very depths of himself with the intent to disclose, not his individuality, but his person in the complex society that conditions and supports him.
—Jean-Paul Sartre
Topics: Writers
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
We cannot withdraw our cards from the game. Were we as silent and mute as stones, our very passivity would be an act.
—Jean-Paul Sartre
Topics: Life
We must act out passion before we can feel it.
—Jean-Paul Sartre
Topics: Passion
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
Topics: Existence
Words are loaded pistols.
—Jean-Paul Sartre
Topics: Words
Fascism is not defined by the number of its victims, but by the way it kills them.
—Jean-Paul Sartre
All human actions are equivalent… and all are on principle doomed to failure.
—Jean-Paul Sartre
Topics: Action
Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.
—Jean-Paul Sartre
Topics: Responsibility, Men
Violence is good for those who have nothing to lose.
—Jean-Paul Sartre
Topics: Violence
A writer must refuse to allow himself to be transformed into an institution.
—Jean-Paul Sartre
Topics: Authors & Writing
It is not right, my fellow-countrymen, you who know very well all the crimes committed in our name, it
—Jean-Paul Sartre
Topics: Violence
If a victory is told in detail, one can no longer distinguish it from a defeat.
—Jean-Paul Sartre
Topics: Defeat
Hell is other people.
—Jean-Paul Sartre
Topics: Hell
Man is not the sum of what he has already, but rather the sum of what he does not yet have, of what he could have.
—Jean-Paul Sartre
Topics: Possibilities
Only the guy who isn’t rowing has time to rock the boat.
—Jean-Paul Sartre
Topics: Action
It is only in our decisions that we are important.
—Jean-Paul Sartre
Topics: Decisions
If literature isn’t everything, it’s not worth a single hour of someone’s trouble.
—Jean-Paul Sartre
Topics: Books, Literature
So this is hell. I’d never have believed it. You remember all we were told about the torture-chambers, the fire and brimstone, the burning marl. Old wives’ tales!There’s no need for red-hot pokers. HELL IS—OTHER PEOPLE!
—Jean-Paul Sartre
Topics: Hell
Generosity is nothing else than a craze to possess. All which I abandon, all which I give, I enjoy in a higher manner through the fact that I give it away. To give is to enjoy possessively the object which one gives.
—Jean-Paul Sartre
Topics: Generosity
The poor don’t know that their function in life is to exercise our generosity.
—Jean-Paul Sartre
Topics: Generosity
Never have I thought that I was the happy possessor of a “talent” my sole concern has been to save myself by work and faith.
—Jean-Paul Sartre
Topics: Talent
Life begins on the other side of despair.
—Jean-Paul Sartre
Topics: Adversity, Perseverance, Difficulties, Resolve, Happiness, Endurance, Despair
Every existing thing is born without reason, prolongs itself out of weakness, and dies by chance.
—Jean-Paul Sartre
Topics: Life and Living
Freedom is what you do with what’s been done to you.
—Jean-Paul Sartre
Topics: Freedom
Friendship doesn’t exist to criticize but to inspire confidence.
—Jean-Paul Sartre
We do not do what we want and yet we are responsible for what we are – that is the fact.
—Jean-Paul Sartre
Topics: Carpe-diem
If you are lonely when you are alone, you are in bad company.
—Jean-Paul Sartre
Topics: One liners, Loneliness, Miscellaneous
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Simone de Beauvoir French Philosopher
- Albert Camus Algerian-born French Philosopher
- Michel Foucault French Philosopher
- Henri Bergson French Philosopher
- Voltaire French Philosopher, Author
- Denis Diderot French Philosopher, Writer
- Georges Bataille French Essayist, Intellectual
- Marquis de Sade French Writer
- Gaston Bachelard French Philosopher
- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin French Jesuit Scientist
Leave a Reply