Jean-Paul Sartre · 108 pages
Rating: (17.1K votes)
“Il n'y a de réalité que dans l'action.
(There is no reality except in action.)”
“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.”
“For many have but one resource to sustain them in their misery, and that is to think, “Circumstances have been against me, I was worthy to be something much better than I have been. I admit I have never had a great love or a great friendship; but that is because I never met a man or a woman who were worthy of it; if I have not written any very good books, it is because I had not the leisure to do so; or, if I have had no children to whom I could devote myself it is because I did not find the man I could have lived with. So there remains within me a wide range of abilities, inclinations and potentialities, unused but perfectly viable, which endow me with a worthiness that could never be inferred from the mere history of my actions.” But in reality and for the existentialist, there is no love apart from the deeds of love; no potentiality of love other than that which is manifested in loving; there is no genius other than that which is expressed in works of art.”
“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.”
“What do we mean by saying that existence precedes essence? We mean that man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world-and defines himself afterward.”
“القيم الأخلاقية غامضة غير محددة، وهى تمتد إلى ما لا نهاية.”
“There is no reality except in action. Man is nothing else than his plan; he exists only to the extent that he fulfills himself; he is therefore nothing else than the ensemble of his acts, nothing else than his life.”
“We will freedom for freedom’s sake, in and through particular circumstances. And in thus willing freedom, we discover that it depends entirely upon the freedom of others and that the freedom of others depends upon our own. Obviously, freedom as the definition of a man does not depend upon others, but as soon as there is a commitment, I am obliged to will the liberty of others at the same time as my own. I cannot make liberty my aim unless I make that of others equally my aim.”
“Atheistic existentialism, of which I am a representative, declares with greater consistency that if God does not exist there is at least one being whose existence comes before its essence, a being which exists before it can be defined by any conception of it. That being is man....”
“Il n’y a de réalité que dans l’action… [L’être humain] n’existe que dans la mesure où il se réalise, il n’est donc rien d’autre que sa vie”
“The existentialist, on the contrary, finds it extremely embarrassing that God does not exist, for there disappears with Him all possibility of finding values in an intelligible heaven. There can no longer be any good a priori, since there is no infinite and perfect consciousness to think it. It is nowhere written that “the good” exists, that one must be honest or must not lie, since we are now upon the plane where there are only men. Dostoevsky once wrote: “If God did not exist, everything would be permitted”; and that, for existentialism, is the starting point. Everything is indeed permitted if God does not exist, and man is in consequence forlorn, for he cannot find anything to depend upon either within or outside himself. He discovers forthwith, that he is without excuse.”
“لا يمكن أن أدلل على حقيقة عاطفتى وكلامى إلا إذا مارست ذلك فعلاً.”
“أستطيع أن أقيس قوة عاطفتى لو أتيت من الأعمال ما يؤكدها ويصادق عليها.”
“إن الإنسان محكوم عليه بالحرية: محكوم لأنه لم يخلق ذاته، وهو حر لأنه قد صار مسؤلاً عن كل مايفعل بمجرد أن تواجد في العالم.”
“If God does not exist, are we provided with any values or commands that could legitimise our behaviour.”
“L'existentialiste, au contraire, pense qu'il est très gênant que Dieu n'existe pas, car avec lui disparaît toute possibilité de trouver des valeurs dans un ciel intelligible; il ne peut plus y avoir de bien a priori, puisqu'il n'y a pas de conscience infinie et parfaite pour le penser; il n'est écrit nulle part que le bien existe, qu'il faut être honnête, qu'il ne faut pas mentir, puisque précisément nous sommes sur un plan où il y a seulement des hommes.”
“(...) sólo el perro o el caballo podrían emitir un juicio de conjunto sobre el hombre y declarar que el hombre es asombroso, lo que ellos no se preocupan de hacer, por lo menos que yo sepa. Pero no se puede admitir que un hombre pueda formular un juicio sobre el hombre.”
“Een mens engageert zich in zijn leven, krijgt daarin gestalte en buiten die gestalte is er niets. Voor iemand die in zijn leven niet geslaagd is, moet dat natuurlijk een harde gedachte zijn. Maar anderzijds stelt ze de mensen in staat te begrijpen dat alleen de werkelijkheid telt, dat dromen, afwachten en hopen een mens tot niet meer dan een teleurgestelde droom, een vervlogen hoop, een vergeefse verwachting maken.”
“من هنگامي آزادم كه همه جهانيان آزاد باشند،تا هنگامي كه يك نفر اسير در جهان است، آزادي وجود ندارد”
“El hombre no es nada más que su proyecto, no existe más que en la medida en que se realiza, no es, por lo tanto, más que el conjunto de sus actos, nada más que su vida.”
“O existencialismo não é tanto um ateísmo no sentido em que se esforçaria por demonstrar que Deus não existe. Ele declara, mais exatamente: mesmo que Deus existisse, nada mudaria; eis o nosso ponto de vista. Não que acreditemos que deus exista, mas pensamos que o problema não é o da sua existência; é preciso que o homem se reencontre e se convença de que nada pode salvá-lo dele próprio, nem mesmo uma prova válida da existência de Deus.”
“به جاي تسلط بر جهان بايد بر خويشتن مسلط شد”
“The crashing sound of years lost shattered in her ears, and new fears emerged from the looking glass. Sometimes I wonder if she'll ever sing again.”
“Art requires a delicate adjustment of the outer and inner worlds in such a way that, without changing their nature, they can be seen through each other.”
“Janie and Jodie looked at him as if he were an out-of-date computer chip.”
“What is love? Love is treating your heart with a great deal of tenderness, with understanding, love, and compassion. If you cannot treat your own heart this way, how can you treat your partner with understanding and love?”
“Generalization is a natural human mental process, and many generalizations are true—in average. What often does promote evil behavior is the lazy, nasty habit of believing that generalizations have anything at all to do with individuals.”
BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.
Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.