Sartre Quotes

“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, Nausea

“I can always choose, but I ought to know that if I do not choose, I am still choosing.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism and Human Emotions

“There is no human nature, since there is no god to conceive it.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism and Human Emotions

“It isn't freedom from. It's freedom to.”
― Jean Paul Sartre

“...Although the term Existentialism was invented in the 20th century by the French philosopher Gabriel Marcel, the roots of this thought go back much further in time, so much so, that this subject was mentioned even in the Old Testament. If we take, for example, the Book of Ecclesiastes, especially chapter 5, verses 15-16, we will find a strong existential sentiment there which declares, 'This too is a grievous evil: As everyone comes, so they depart, and what do they gain, since they toil for the wind?' The aforementioned book was so controversial that in the distant past there were whole disputes over whether it should be included in the Bible. But if nothing else, this book proves that Existential Thought has always had its place in the centre of human life. However, if we consider recent Existentialism, we can see it was the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre who launched this movement, particularly with his book Being and Nothingness, in 1943. Nevertheless, Sartre's thought was not a new one in philosophy. In fact, it goes back three hundred years and was first uttered by the French philosopher René Descartes in his 1637 Discours de la Méthode, where he asserts, 'I think, therefore I am' . It was on this Cartesian model of the isolated ego-self that Sartre built his existential consciousness, because for him, Man was brought into this world for no apparent reason and so it cannot be expected that he understand such a piece of absurdity rationally.''

'' Sir, what can you tell us about what Sartre thought regarding the unconscious mind in this respect, please?'' a charming female student sitting in the front row asked, listening keenly to every word he had to say.

''Yes, good question. Going back to Sartre's Being and Nothingness it can be seen that this philosopher shares many ideological concepts with the Neo-Freudian psychoanalysts but at the same time, Sartre was diametrically opposed to one of the fundamental foundations of psychology, which is the human unconscious. This is precisely because if Sartre were to accept the unconscious, the same subject would end up dissolving his entire thesis which revolved around what he understood as being the liberty of Man. This stems from the fact that according to Sartre, if a person accepts the unconscious mind he is also admitting that he can never be free in his choices since these choices are already pre-established inside of him. Therefore, what can clearly be seen in this argument is the fact that apparently, Sartre had no idea about how physics, especially Quantum Mechanics works, even though it was widely known in his time as seen in such works as Heisenberg's The Uncertainty Principle, where science confirmed that first of all, everything is interconnected - the direct opposite of Sartrean existential isolation - and second, that at the subatomic level, everything is undetermined and so there is nothing that is pre-established; all scientific facts that in themselves disprove the Existential Ontology of Sartre and Existentialism itself...”
― Anton Sammut, Paceville and Metanoia

“Whenever the wife wants to do drugs, she thinks about Sartre. One bad trip and then a giant lobster followed him around for the rest of his days.”
― Jenny Offill, Dept. of Speculation

“Başlangıç olmadığı gibi, son da yoktur. Bir kadın, bir dost, bir kent bir kerede terk edilemez. Hepsi birbirine benzer zaten.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, Nausea

“Faire souffrir c'est posséder et créer tout autant que détruire.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, Baudelaire

“- Tu es et tu resteras toujours une petite-bourgeoise moraliste. Comme Camus.
- Tu es et tu resteras toujours un petit con prétencieux. Comme Sartre.”
― Jean-Michel Guenassia, Le Club des incorrigibles optimistes

“So I was a poodle of the future; I made prophecies.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre

“My whole life is behind me. I see it completely, I see its shape and the slow movements which have brought me this far. There is little to say about it: a lost game, that’s all.

I had lost the first round. I wanted to play the second and I lost again: I lost the whole game. At the same time, I learned that you always lose. Only the rascals think they win.

Now I am going to be like Anny, I am going to outlive myself. Eat, sleep, sleep, eat. Exist slowly, softly, like these trees, like a puddle of water, like the red bench in the streetcar.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, Nausea

“The existentialist cannot accept that man can be helped by any sign on earth, for he will interpret the sign as he chooses.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism is a Humanism

“here we are, all of us, eating and drinking to preserve our precious existence, and that there's nothing, nothing, absolutely no reason for existing.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, Nausea

“FIRST FURY: You see! You see! . . . That's quite true, little doll; you're less afraid of us than of
that man. Because you need us, Electra. You are our child, our little girl. You need our nails to score your skin, our teeth to bite your breast, and all our savage love to save you from your hatred of yourself. Only the suffering of your body can take your mind off your suffering soul. So come and let us hurt you. You have only those two steps to come down, and we will take you in our arms. And when our kisses sear your tender flesh, you'll forget all in the cleansing fires of pain.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, No Exit and Three Other Plays

“HUGO [smiling]: Go to hell.
OLGA: You shouldn't have said that.
HUGO: Why not?
OLGA: One doesn't say things like that.
HUGO [astonished]: Olga, are you superstitious?
OLGA [upset]: Certainly not. [HUGO watches her attentively.]
HUGO: What is he going to do?
OLGA: It's no business of yours.
HUGO: He's going to bomb the Korsk bridge?
OLGA: Why do you want me to tell you? If something goes wrong, the less you know, the better off you are.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, No Exit and Three Other Plays

“While limerence has been called love, it is not love. Although the limerent feels a kind of love for LO at the time, from LO’s point of view limerence and love are quite different from each other.
It is limerence, not love, that increases when lovers are able to meet only infrequently or when there is anger between them. No wonder those who view limerence from an external vantage are baffled by what seems more a form of insanity than a form of love. Jean-Paul Sartre calls it a project with a “contradictory ideal.” He notes that each of the lovers seek the love of the other without realizing that what they want is to be loved. His conclusion is that the amorous relation is “a system of infinite reflections, a deceiving mirror game which carries within itself its own frustration,” a kind of “dupery.”
It should also be clear now that limerent uncertainly as well as projection can be viewed as the consequence of your limerent inclination to hide your own feelings: If you hide your true reactions, then LO, if indeed limerent, can be expected to do the same. When LO appears not to be eager, or even interested, it is not unreasonable to interpret that behavior as evidence itself of limerence; and a kind of “paranoia” becomes an entirely logical consequence of a situation that may indeed be what Simone de Beauvoir has called it: “impossible.”
Because one of the invariant characteristics of limerence is extreme emotional dependency on LO’s behavior, the actual course of the limerence must depend on the actions and reactions of both lovers. Uncertainty increases limerence; increased limerence dictates altered action which serves to increase or decrease limerence in the other according to the interpretation given. The interplay is delicate if the relationship hovers near mutuality; a subtle imbalance, constantly shifting, appears to maintain it. Each knows who “loves more.”
If limerence were measurable by an instrument that enabled its intensity to be read by the points on a dial, one could imagine that, if lovers sat together reading each other’s degree of reciprocation, the dials would rarely if ever set themselves at the same point on the scales. For instance, if you found yourself more limerent than your partner, then your limerence might decline through reduced hope, or if your partner’s were higher, it might decline through reduced uncertainty. Perhaps such true awareness would provide a means of controlling the reaction.”
― Dorothy Tennov, Love and Limerence: The Experience of Being in Love

“Question : YOU HAVE DEFINED YOURSELF AS THE RICH MAN'S GURU. DON'T THE OTHER PEOPLE INTEREST YOU? ARE THE RICH PARTICULARLY IN NEED OF A GURU? OR ARE YOU THEIR GURU BECAUSE THEY HAVE MONEY?

Osho : The first thing to be understood: I have not defined myself as the rich man's guru. It is the yellow journalism, which dominates the mind of the masses around the world, which came up with the definition. I simply accepted it with my own meanings. They were saying it to be derogatory, but my meaning is totally different.

A Vincent van Gogh is far more rich than Henry Ford. Richness does not mean only wealth or money; richness is a multidimensional phenomenon. A poet may be poor, but he has a sensitivity that no money can purchase. He is richer than any rich man. A musician may not be rich, but as far as his music is concerned, no wealth is richer than his music.

To me the rich man is one who has sensitivity, creativity, receptivity. The man of wealth is only one of the dimensions. According to me the man of wealth is also a creative artist: he creates wealth.

Not everybody can be a Henry Ford. His talents should be respected, although what he creates is mundane. It cannot be compared to Mozart's music or Nijinsky's dance, or Jean-Paul Sartre's philosophy. But still, he creates something which is valuable, utilitarian, and the world would be better if there were many more Henry Fords.

So when I accepted the definition, my meaning was richness in any dimension. Only a rich being can have some connection with me. A certain sensitivity is absolutely needed, a certain vision is needed.

A poor man is one whose mind is retarded - he may have immense wealth; that does not matter - who cannot understand classical music, who cannot understand poetry, who cannot understand philosophy, who cannot understand the high flights of human spirit.

There are certain basic necessities which should be fulfilled; there is a hierarchy. First your bodily needs should be fulfilled; then your psychological needs should be fulfilled. Only then for the first time you become hungry for spiritual experiences. Now what can I do about it? - that is the nature of things. If water evaporates at one hundred degrees heat, what can I do? I cannot persuade it to evaporate at ninety-nine degrees. It is the nature of things.

And this is the hierarchy: bodily needs first, then psychological needs second, and only then spiritual needs. What I can give to you concerns your hunger for spiritual growth. If it is not there, I cannot create it. If it is there, I can show you the path.

You can see it. I have not been seeking out and going to the rich people. Those who have come to me have come on their own. Their thirst has brought them to me.

I have not been giving any promises to anybody. I have not been going after anybody. Millions of people - those who have come to me - have come on their own.

And now you can see for yourself. Those who have come have a certain richness of some kind or other; it is not only the money. I have around me people of all talents, people of different kinds of genius. Somehow my very approach prevents those people who will not be benefited from coming close to me. Even if they come accidentally, they disappear; they don't stay. They don't become part of my world. They don't share the vision with me.

..by some existential arrangement I can attract only those people who are very talented, immensely intelligent, very rich in some quality of life. Only from that angle of richness will they have a connection with me.

And the yellow journalists go on saying sensational things to people, meaningless, false, ugly - because I am not a guru. If I have to define it I will say, "I am only a friend, a friend of all those who have talents, intelligence and some urge for spiritual growth." To me they are the rich people.”
― Osho, Socrates Poisoned Again After 25 Centuries

“Life decisions—making too many and/or making them too easily is as dangerous as not making them at all. How clearly mania and depression outline the extremes of the dilemma of us all before the terrible fact of choice: indecisiveness in depression—nothing can be done; overdecisiveness in mania—everything is to be done and nothing gets done. We are doomed to choose, Sartre said, yet we don’t know when to choose and when not to choose.”
― S. Nassir Ghaemi, The Concepts of Psychiatry: A Pluralistic Approach to the Mind and Mental Illness

“Sartre's perspective of freedom is neither redemptive nor creative, but
of a cold mechanical and mathematical causality - you are "doomed" to be free. Basically, he didn't mean that we are free, but that we need to believe that we are.”
― Jeff Ampolini

“Hayatımızın anlamını biz yaratmayız, onu keşfederiz, der Sartre.”
― Héctor García, Ikigai: Los secretos de Japón para una vida larga y joven

“O humanismo sartreano não tem nada a ver com nenhum dogmatismo. Cabe a cada um apropriar-se dele e construi-lo através de uma existência zelosa de sua singularidade na afirmação constante da liberdade, para si mesmo e para os outros.”
― Frederic Allouche, Ser livre com Sartre

“…Sartre, expanding on Descartes, wrote that the reason we know others exist is because when they look at us, we feel looked at. He called the entity that was staring back at us the Other. From that meeting of the eyes, everything else in our fragile human universes blossomed forth. But! Think of how easily human status is taken away—by war, by hospitals, by arguments about whose turn it is to take out the recycling. How easily we can turn people into things. And now Tanya had turned me into a thing.”
― Adrian Barnes, Nod

“Existentialism is the interpreted content of the Flaubertian text and of his life: the sum of “Flaubert” or Flaubert signified.”
― AMCX, Sartre, Flaubert, Lynch: Return to Yonville

“Sartre is no ordinary reader, so if for most of Flaubert's readers there is no immediate takeoff, with Sartre it was instantaneous: Sartre/Flaubert=Lynch.”
― AMCX, Sartre, Flaubert, Lynch: Return to Yonville

“— O inferno é lá fora.
— Não são os outros?
— O quê?
— O inferno não são os outros.
— Não, é lá fora! Quem disse isso?
— Acho que o Sartre.”
― Alex Sens, Algólidas

“«Não aceitamos a filosofia existencialista só porque afirmamos que o mundo é absurdo. Se assim fosse, 80% dos passageiros do metro, a acreditar nas conversas que ouço, seriam existencialistas. O existencialismo é uma visão completa, uma visão do mundo que pressupõe uma metafísica e uma moral. Se bem que me aperceba da importância histórica do movimento, não tenho suficiente confiança na razão para aderir a um sistema. Isto é tão verdade que o manifesto de Sartre, publicado no primeiro número dos Temps Modernes, me parece inaceitável.»
(Carta à revista "Le Nef", 1/1946)”
― Albert Camus

“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.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism is a Humanism

“If I ask myself "Will the social ideal as such, ever become a reality?" I cannot tell, I only know that whatever may be in my power to make it so, I shall do; beyond that, I can count upon nothing.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism is a Humanism

“In life, a man commits himself, draws his own portrait and there is nothing but that portrait. no doubt this thought may seem comfortless to one who has not made a success of his life. On the other hand, it puts everyone in a position to understand that reality alone is reliable; that dreams, expectations and hopes serve to define a man only as deceptive dreams, abortive hopes, expectations unfulfilled; that is to say, they define him negatively, not positively.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism is a Humanism

“But Castor, why have you stopped thinking, why aren't you working? I thought you wanted to write? You don't want to become a housewife, do you?”
― Jean Paul Sartre