Quotes About Self

Man is what he wills himself to be.

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.

Perhaps its inevitable, perhaps one has to choose between being nothing at all and impersonating what one is.

I am myself and I am here.

Fear? If I have gained anything by damning myself, it is that I no longer have anything to fear.

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

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

An individual chooses and makes himself.

I clung to nothing, in a way I was calm. But it was a horrible calm—because of my body; my body, I saw with its eyes, I heard with its ears, but it was no longer me; it sweated and trembled by itself and I didn't recognize it any more.

I exist. It's sweet, so sweet, so slow. And light: you'd think it floated all by itself. It stirs. It brushes by me, melts and vanishes. Gently, gently. There is bubbling water in my throat, it caresses me- and now it comes up again into my mouth. For ever I shall have a little pool of whitish water in my mouth - lying low - grazing my tongue. And this pool is still me. And the tongue. And the throat is me.

Consciousness is a being the nature of which is to be conscious of the nothingness of its being.

J'existe, c'est tout.

And I too wanted to be. That is all I wanted; and this is the last word. At the bottom of all these attempts which seemed without bounds, I find the same desire again: to drive existence out of me, to rid the passing moments of their fat, to twist them, dry them, purify myself, harden myself, to give back at last the sharp, precise sound of a saxophone note. That could even make an apologue: there was a poor man who got in the wrong world.

I had been born in order to fill the great need I had of myself.

On meurt toujours trop tôt ? ou trop tard. Et cependant la vie est là, terminée: le trait est tiré, il faut faire la somme. Tu n'es rien d'autre que ta vie.

Tu n'es rien d'autre que ta vie.

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.

I must wash myself clean with abstract thoughts, transparent as water.

The distance between the being and the conscience is the nothing

No doctrine is more optimistic [than existentialism], since it declares that man's destiny lies within himself.

Outside nature, against nature, without excuse, beyond remedy, except what remedy I find within myself.

Je ne suis rien que le regard qui te voit, que cette pensée incolore qui te pense.

I am never any one of my attitudes, any one of my actions

She is dearer to me than life. But her suffering comes from within, and only she can rid herself of it. For she is free.