Quotes About Philosophy

Through the lack of attaching myself to words, my thoughts remain nebulous most of the time. They sketch vague, pleasant shapes and then are swallowed up; I forget them almost immediately.

That God does not exist, I cannot deny, That my whole being cries out for God I cannot forget.

Existence is an imperfection.

As for me, I am mean: that means that I need the suffering of others to exist. A flame. A flame in their hearts. When I am all alone, I am extinguished.

I found the human heart empty and insipid everywhere except in books.

Nothingness lies coiled in the heart of being - like a worm.

I dreamed vaguely of killing myself to wipe out at least one of these superfluous lives. But even my death would have been In the way . In the way, my corpse, my blood on these stones, between these plants, at the back of this smiling garden. And the decomposed flesh would have been In the way in the earth which would receive my bones, at last, cleaned, stripped, peeled, proper and clean as teeth, it would have been In the way : I was In the way for eternity.

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.

Life is a useless passion.

There is a universe behind and before him. And the day is approaching when closing the last book on the last shelf on the far left; he will say to himself, now what?

Being is. Being is in-itself. Being is what it is.

I said to myself, 'I want to die decently'.

He is always becoming, and if it were not for the contingency of death, he would never end.

I confused things with their names: that is belief.

Nothingness haunts Being.

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.

A pale reflection of myself wavers in my consciousness...and suddenly the "I" pales, pales, and fades out.

People. You must love people. Men are admirable. I want to vomit—and suddenly, there it is: the Nausea

The consciousness that says 'I am' is not the consciousness that thinks.

A madman's ravings are absurd in relation to the situation in which he finds himself, but not in relation to his madness.

In the state I was in, if someone had come and told me I could go home quietly, that they would leave me my life whole, it would have left me cold: several hours or several years of waiting is all the same when you have lost the illusion of being eternal.

Most of the time, because of their failure to fasten on to words, my thoughts remain misty and nebulous. They assume vague, amusing shapes and are then swallowed up: I promptly forget them.

It is disgusting -- Why must we have bodies?

The Nausea has not left me and I don't believe it will leave me so soon; but I no longer have to bear it, it is no longer an illness or a passing fit: it is I.