“She smiled and said with an ecstatic air: "It shines like a little diamond",
"What does?"
"This moment. It is round, it hangs in empty space like a little diamond; I am eternal.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, quote from The Age of Reason
“The individual's duty is to do what he wants to do, to think whatever he likes, to be accountable to no one but himself, to challenge every idea and every person.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, quote from The Age of Reason
“Perhaps its inevitable, perhaps one has to choose between being nothing at all and impersonating what one is.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, quote from The Age of Reason
“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, quote from The Age of Reason
“All I want is' - and he uttered the final words through clenched teeth and with a sort of shame - 'to retain my freedom.'
I should myself have thought,' said Jacques, 'that freedom consisted in frankly confronting situations into which one had deliberately entered, and accepting all one's responsibilities. But that, no doubt, is not your view.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, quote from The Age of Reason
“It's just what people do when they're getting old, when they're sick of themselves and their life; they think of money and take care of themselves.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, quote from The Age of Reason
“But no: he was empty, he was confronted by a vast anger, a desperate anger, he saw it and could almost have touched it. But it was inert - if it were to live and find expression and suffer, he must lend it his own body. It was other people's anger. "Swine!" He clenched his fists, he strode along, but nothing came, the anger remained external to himself.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, quote from The Age of Reason
“Perhaps it’s inevitable; perhaps one has to choose between being nothing at all, or impersonating what one is. That would be terrible,’ he said to himself: ‘it would mean that we were duped by nature.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, quote from The Age of Reason
“Oppressed with countless little daily cares, he had waited... For an act. A free, considered act; that should pledge his whole life, and stand at the beginning of a new existence.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, quote from The Age of Reason
“With older people, it's quite different. They're reliable, they show you what to do, and there's solidity in their affection.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, quote from The Age of Reason
“I've lived the life of a man without teeth, he thought about it. A life of a man without teeth. I've never bitten, I've been waiting, keeping myself for later - and now I've just ascertained that I don't have teeth anymore.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, quote from The Age of Reason
“He yawned; he had finished the day, and he had also finished with his youth. Various tried and proved rules of conduct had already discreetly offered him their services: disillusioned epicureanism, smiling tolerance, resignation, flat seriousness, stoicism--all the aids whereby a man may savor, minute by minute, like a connoisseur, the failure of a life... 'I have attained the age of reason.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, quote from The Age of Reason
“But you looked much more like a fellow who had just realised that he has been living on ideas that don’t pay.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, quote from The Age of Reason
“Her smiles, her mimicries, all the words she uttered were addressed to herself through him.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, quote from The Age of Reason
“Well, you're free without wanting to be,' he explained, 'it just happens so, that's all. But Mathieu's freedom is based on reason.'
'I still don't understand,' said Lola, shaking her head.
'Well, he doesn't care a curse about his apartment: he lives there just as he would live anywhere else, and I've got the feeling that he doesn't care much about his girl. He stays with her because he must sleep with someone. His freedom isn't visible, it's inside him.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, quote from The Age of Reason
“If... if I didn't try to get my life moving on my own account, I should think it just absurd to go on living.'
A look of smiling obstinacy had come into Marcelle's face.
'Yes, yes - it's your vice.'
'It's not a vice. It's how I'm made.'
'Why aren't other people made like that, if it isn't a vice?'
'They are, only they don't know it.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, quote from The Age of Reason
“I go, I go away, I walk, I wander, and everywhere I go I bear my shell with me, I remain at home in my room, among my books, I do not approach an inch nearer to Marrakech or Timbuktu. Even if I took a train, a boat, or a motor-bus, if I went to Morocco for my holiday, if I suddenly arrived at Marrakech, I should be always in my room, at home. And if I walked in the squares and in the sooks, if I gripped an Arab's shoulder, to feel Marrakech in his person - well, that Arab would be at Marrakech, not I : I should still be seated in my room, placid and meditative as is my chosen life, two thousand miles away from the Moroccan and his burnoose. In my room. Forever.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, quote from The Age of Reason
“What a torment it is not to be rich! It gets one into such abject situations.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, quote from The Age of Reason
“Love was not something to be felt, not a particular emotion, nor yet a particular shade of feeling, it was much more like a lowering curse on the horizon, a precursor of disaster.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, quote from The Age of Reason
“I'm not obstinate, I'm highly strung: I don't know how to let myself go. I must always think of what is happening to me - it's a form of self-protection.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, quote from The Age of Reason
“When a man gets drunk he gets sentimental. That's what I wanted to avoid.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, quote from The Age of Reason
“Qarjet e të rriturve ishin si një katastrofë mistike, diçka si lotët që derdh Zoti për ligësinë e njerëzve.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, quote from The Age of Reason
“J'aurai cru, moi, dit Jacques, que la liberté consistait à regarder en face les situations où l'on s'est mis de plein gré et à accepter toutes ses responsabilités. Mais çe n'est sans doute pas ton avis : tu condamnes la société capitaliste , et pourtant tu es fonctionnaire dans cette société, tu affiches une sympathie de principe pour les communistes : mais tu te gardes bien de t'engager, tu n 'as jamais voté. Tu méprises la classe bourgeoise et pourtant tu es bourgeois, fils et frère de bourgeois et tu vis comme un bourgeois.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, quote from The Age of Reason
“If I didn't try to assume responsibility for my own existence, it would seem utterly absurd to go on existing.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, quote from The Age of Reason
“Espera tanto tempo. Os últimos anos tinham sido uma vigília.
Esperara através de mil e uma preocupações quotidianas.
Naturalmente durante esse tempo andara atrás de mulheres, viajara e ganhara a vida. Mas através de tudo isso a sua única preocupação fora manter-se disponível. Para uma acção. Um acto.
Um acto livre e reflectido que acarretaria o destino da sua vida e seria o início de uma nova existência. Nunca pudera prender-se definitivamente a um amor, a um prazer, nunca fora realmennte infeliz; sempre lhe parecera estar algures, não ter ainda nascido completamente.
Esperava. E durante esse tempo, devagar, sub-repticiamente os anos tinham chegado, e tinham-no envolvido.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, quote from The Age of Reason
Jean-Paul Sartre
Born place: in Paris, France
Born date June 21, 1905
See more on GoodReads
“Her nod was grudging. “Do you think Downing killed her and ran?” “There is no evidence of that.” He pulled up to her building. “One last question,” he said. “Was Greg involved in anything unsavory?” “Like what?” “Like is there any reason thugs would be after him?” Again her excitement was palpable. The woman was like an electric current. “What do you mean? What thugs?” “A couple of thugs were watching Greg’s house.” Her face was positively glowing. “Thugs? You mean like professional gangsters?” “Probably. I don’t know for sure yet. Can you think of anything that would connect Greg to thugs or for that matter, the murder of this woman? Drugs maybe?” Audrey shook her head immediately. “It can’t be drugs.”
― Harlan Coben, quote from Fade Away
“don’t start dieting until you’re psychologically ready, which might not be until two weeks from today.”
― Judith S. Beck, quote from The Beck Diet Solution
“He did know: he knew her right away, and he felt known by her, and that was where the trouble really began...She could have been exotic or worldly or a Valkyrie and it would have meant nothing to him. But that Alice saw him―that was a feeling Amos had never experienced before, and it felt like a revelation and also like a virus.”
― Haven Kimmel, quote from The Solace of Leaving Early
“(...) rozwścieczyło to jeszcze bardziej, wypchnęła do przodu swój gigantyczny biust tak, że Haakani aż się potknął cofając, i palnęła, że lepiej by sobie possał cyca, jeśli nie ma nic ważniejszego do powiedzenia. Kobiety zarechotały szorstko, a Haakani poczerwieniał. Potem powiedział, że na palce będzie się siłował dopiero, gdy baba wychyli kieliszek wódki. Ponieważ była chrześcijanką, odmówiła. Sprzeczali się, wałkując temat tam i z powrotem. W końcu, z czystej złości, Hilma chwyciła spory kieliszek bimbru, wypiła do dna i wystawiła swój długi pazur. Wszyscy ucichli i przerażeni wlepili oczy w staruszkę.”
― Mikael Niemi, quote from Popular Music from Vittula
“I have always been dismayed by the West’s failure—or unwillingness—to recognize that establishing secular schools that offer children a balanced and nonextremist form of education is probably the cheapest and most effective way of combating this kind of indoctrination.”
― Greg Mortenson, quote from Stones Into Schools: Promoting Peace With Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan
Chain Reaction
Surely You're Joking...
Bossypants
Dragonflight
Eva Luna
Rebel AngelsBookQuoters 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.
