Jean-Paul Sartre Quotes

I exist. It is soft, so soft, so slow. And light: it seems as though it suspends in the air. It moves.

I want to leave, to go somewhere where I should be really in my place, where I would fit in . . . but my place is nowhere; I am unwanted.

I never could bear the idea of anyone's expecting something from me. It always made me want to do just the opposite.

I do not think therefore I am a moustache

In love, one and one are one.

Commitment is an act, not a word.

I exist, that is all, and I find it nauseating.

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.

All I can do is make the best of what I am, become accustomed to it, evaluate the possibilities, and take advantage of them the best I can.

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.

A kiss without a moustache, they said then, is like an egg without salt; I will add to it: and it is like Good without Evil.

If I became a philosopher, if I have so keenly sought this fame for which I'm still waiting, it's all been to seduce women basically.

Philosophy which does not help to illuminate the process of the liberation of the oppressed should be rejected.

What do I care about Jupiter? Justice is a human issue, and I do not need a god to teach it to me.

I can always choose, but I ought to know that if I do not choose, I am still choosing.

Genius is what a man invents when he is looking for a way out.

If you seek authenticity for authenticity's sake you are no longer authentic.

We make our own hell out of the people around us.

You are -- your life, and nothing else.

Life begins on the other side of despair.

The [Communist] Party has one objective: the creation of a socialist economy; and one means: the utilization of the class struggle.

I confused things with their names: that is belief.

Words are more treacherous and powerful than we think.

Words are loaded pistols.

It disturbs me no more to find men base, unjust, or selfish than to see apes mischievous, wolves savage, or the vulture ravenous.

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.

All that I know about my life, it seems, I have learned in books.

I think that is the big danger in keeping a diary: you exaggerate everything.

When rich people fight wars with one another, poor people are the ones to die.

I tell you in truth: all men are Prophets or else God does not exist.

Because we can imagine, we are free.

Handing over a bank note is enough to make a bicycle belong to me, but my entire life is needed to realize this possession.

Smooth and smiling faces everywhere, but ruin in their eyes.

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

Several hours or several years make no difference once you have lost eternity.

Three o'clock is always too late or too early for anything you want to do.

I am a man, Jupiter, and each man must invent his own path.

A writer must refuse to allow himself to be transformed into an institution, even if it takes place in the most honorable form.

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

Death is a continuation of my life without me.

I'd come to realize that all our troubles spring from our failure to use plain, clear-cut language.

Nothingness haunts Being.

I have such a desire to sleep and am so much behind my sleep. A good night, one good night and all this nonsense will be swept away.

Every human endeavor, however singular it seems, involves the whole human race.

Once freedom lights its beacon in man's heart, the gods are powerless against him.

Violence is good for those who have nothing to lose.

In a word, man must create his own essence: it is in throwing himself into the world, suffering there, struggling there, that he gradually defines himself.

It answers the question that was tormenting you: my love, you are not 'one thing in my life' - not even the most important - because my life no longer belongs to me because...you are always me.

It is only in our decisions that we are important.

A lost battle is a battle one thinks one has lost.