Quotes from Jean-Paul Sartre

The English and the French have not a single memory in common. Everything that London suffered with pride, Paris suffered in shame and despair. It is important for us to learn to speak of ourselves without emotion

Finally, it is worth mentioning, in the interest of thoroughness, that the defeat exasperated the conflict between generations. For four years the combatants of 1914 reproached those of 1940 for having lost the war, and those of 1940, in reply, accused their elders of having lost the peace.

Hayat?m?n anlar?n?n, hat?rlanan bir hayat?n anlar? gibi birbirini izlemesini istemiÅŸtim. Zaman? kuyruÄŸundan yakalamaya kalk??man?n böyle bir önemi olabilirdi.

Nu-mi simt trupul, m-a cucerit puritatea lucrurilor care m? înconjoar?; nimic nu e viu; vântul sufl?, linii drepte alearg? în noapte.

could we not conceive of a philosophy of existence linked, not solely to experiences of separation, forlornness, and profound melancholy, but also to feelings of hope and confidence?

We all wish we did not exist. It is a state where we have no choice. This is because when you have a choice comes responsibility and anxiety.

The existentialist cannot accept that man can be helped by any sign on earth, for he will interpret the sign as he chooses.

To forget about the others? How utterly absurd! I feel you there, in every pore. Your silence clamors in my ears. You can nail up your mouth, cut your tongue out - but you can't prevent your being there.

The words I speak are too big for my mouth, they tear it; the load of destiny I bear is too heavy for my youth and has shattered it.

I've dropped out of their hearts like a little sparrow fallen from its nest.

A search for justification and the impossibility of justification are recurrent motifs in the philosophy of Sartre. His philosophy is one of the incarnations of problematism and of the ambiguity of contemporary thought (for Man does seem, to the contemporary mind, to be ambiguous).

Antes de alguém viver, a vida, em si mesma, não é nada; é quem é a vive que deve dar-lhe um sentido; e o valor nada mais que constatar-se, assim, que é possível criar uma comunidade humana.

Revolutionary man must be a contingent being, unjustifiable but free, entirely immersed in the society that oppresses him, but capable of transcending this society by his effort to change it. Idealism mystifies him in that it binds him by rights and values that are already given; it conceals from him his power to devise roads of his own. But materialism also mystifies him, by depriving him of his freedom. The revolutionary philosophy must be a philosophy of transcendence.

Ötekilere yalan söylemesinden hoÅŸlan?yordum. Ama bana ayn? biçimde davranmamas?n? isterdim. Bütün bu ölülerin üstünden, çar??lardaki yankesiciler gibi anlaÅŸabileceÄŸimizi ve onun en sonunda bana gerçeÄŸi söyleyeceÄŸini ummuÅŸtum. Oysa hiçbir ÅŸey söylemedi bana, evet, hiçbir ÅŸey!

incident. "Nothing new." I admire the way we can lie, putting reason on our side. Evidently, nothing new has happened, if you care to put it that way:

The letters I had inscribed on it were not even dry yet and already they belonged to the past.

What were you hoping, when you removed the gags that stopped up these black mouths? That they would sing your praises? Did you think, when the heads our fathers had ground into the dust had raised themselves up again, you would see adoration in their eyes? Here are black men standing, men looking at us, and I want you to feel, as I do, the shock of being seen. For the white man has, for three thousand years, enjoyed the privilege of seeing without being seen. - Black Orpheus

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.

But the end is there, transforming everything. For us, the man is already the hero of the story. His moroseness, his money troubles are much more precious than ours, they are all gilded by the light of future passions.

Everywhere, now, there are objects like this glass of beer on the table there. When I see it, I feel like saying: "Enough." I realize quite well that I have

I liked this shop very much, it has a cynical and obstinate look, it insolently recalled the rights of dirt and vermin, only two paces from the most costly church in France.

Veo el porvenir. Está allí, en la calle, apenas más pálido que el presente. ¿Qué necesidad tiene de realizarse?¿Qué ganará con ello?

Varolu?, insan?n s?yr?lamad??? bir doluluktur.

The existentialist portrays a coward as one who makes himself a coward by his actions, a hero who makes himself heroic.