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Jean Paul Sartre Quotes
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321 Thought-Provoking Quotes on Individuality, Existence, and Life

Discover the profound wisdom of Jean Paul Sartre through a collection of thought-provoking quotes. From the importance of individuality and self-determination to the complexities of human existence, delve into the mind of this influential philosopher and explore his unique perspectives on life.

Jean-Paul Sartre was a prominent French philosopher, playwright, novelist, and political activist. He is considered a leading figure in 20th-century French philosophy and Marxism, known for his work in existentialism. Sartre's philosophy influenced various fields including sociology, critical theory, post-colonial theory, and literary studies. Despite declining official honors, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1964. Sartre had a significant relationship with feminist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir and together they challenged societal norms and expectations. The conflict between conformity and authenticity was a central theme in his early work.

Born on June 21, 1905 in Paris, Sartre showed an early interest in philosophy and literature. He studied at the École Normale Supérieure where he formed lifelong friendships with influential intellectuals of his time. Sartre's philosophical development was greatly influenced by attending seminars conducted by Alexandre Kojève. Throughout his life, Sartre actively engaged in political activism and social justice causes. He strongly opposed colonization and supported the Algerian War for independence from French rule as well as anti-American involvement in the Vietnam War. As a prolific writer, Sartre produced numerous works including plays such as "No Exit" and "The Flies". In later years, he renounced literature but continued to write about politics and issues of social import. Jean-Paul Sartre passed away on April 15, 1980 in Paris.

✵ 21. June 1905 – 15. April 1980  •  Other names Jean-Paule Sartre
Jean Paul Sartre photo
Jean Paul Sartre: 321 quotes51 likes

Jean Paul Sartre Quotes

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

Jean Paul Sartre book Nausea

Source: Nausea

“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 afterwards.”

Jean Paul Sartre

Source: Existentialism Is a Humanism, lecture http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/sartre/works/exist/sartre.htm (1946) <br class="br">Context: 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 afterwards. If man as the existentialist sees him is not definable, it is because to begin with he is nothing. He will not be anything until later, and then he will be what he makes of himself. Thus, there is no human nature, because there is no God to have a conception of it. Man simply is. Not that he is simply what he conceives himself to be, but he is what he wills, and as he conceives himself after already existing – as he wills to be after that leap towards existence. Man is nothing else but that which he makes of himself. That is the first principle of existentialism.

“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.”

Jean Paul Sartre

“Man is nothing else but what he purposes, he exists only in so far as he realizes himself, he is therefore nothing else but the sum of his actions, nothing else but what his life is.”

Jean Paul Sartre

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

Jean Paul Sartre book Nausea

Source: Nausea

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

Jean Paul Sartre book The Devil and the Good Lord

Act 1
The Devil and the Good Lord (1951)

“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.”

Jean Paul Sartre book The Wall

Source: The Wall

“It is disgusting -- Why must we have bodies?”

Jean Paul Sartre

“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.”

Jean Paul Sartre

“I am not asking for sensational revelations, but I would like to sense the meaning of that minute, to feel it's urgency…”

Jean Paul Sartre

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

Jean Paul Sartre book Nausea

Source: Nausea

“I wanted for the moments in my life to follow each other and order themselves like those of a life remembered. It would be just as well to try to catch time by the tail.”

Jean Paul Sartre

Nausea (1938)
Source: Nausea, The Wall and Other Stories

“It is the good children, Madame, who make the most terrible revolutionaries. They say nothing, they do not hide under the table, they eat only one sweet at a time, but later on, they make Society pay dearly for it!”

Jean Paul Sartre Dirty Hands

Jessica, Act 3, sc. 1
Dirty Hands (1948)

“For an occurrence to become an adventure, it is necessary and sufficient for one to recount it.”

Jean Paul Sartre book Nausea

Nausea (1938)

“We must act out passion before we can feel it.”

Jean Paul Sartre

“Time is too large, it can't be filled up. Everything you plunge into it is stretched and disintegrates.”

Jean Paul Sartre book Nausea

Source: Nausea

“[W]e only become what we are by the radical and deep-seated refusal of that which others have made of us.”

Jean Paul Sartre

Miscellaneous

“I think of death only with tranquility, as an end. I refuse to let death hamper life. Death must enter life only to define it.”

Jean Paul Sartre No Exit

Source: No Exit (1944)

“Some of these days,
Oh, you'll miss me honey”

Jean Paul Sartre

“… I had spent my time counterfeiting eternity…”

Jean Paul Sartre

“Your scare me rather. My reflection in the glass never did that; of course, I knew it so well. Like something I had tamed… I'm going to smile, and my smile will sink down into your pupils, and heaven knows what it will become.”

Jean Paul Sartre No Exit

Source: No Exit

“There is no human nature, since there is no god to conceive it.”

Jean Paul Sartre

Source: Existentialism and Human Emotions

“In doing Good, I lose myself in Being, I abandon my particularity, I become a universal subject.”

Jean Paul Sartre book Saint Genet

77
Saint Genet, Actor and Martyr (1952)

“Ah! yes, I know: those who see me rarely trust my word: I must look too intelligent to keep it.”

Jean Paul Sartre book The Devil and the Good Lord

Act 2, sc. 3
The Devil and the Good Lord (1951)

“Some men are born committed to action: they do not have a choice, they have been thrown on a path, at the end of that path, an act awaits them, their act.”

Jean Paul Sartre The Flies

Act 1
The Flies (1943)

“I mistrust illuminations: what we take for a discovery is very often only a familiar thought that we have not recognized.”

Jean Paul Sartre book Saint Genet

439
Saint Genet, Actor and Martyr (1952)

“I will take it all: tongs, molten lead, prongs, garrotes, all that burns, all that tears, I want to truly suffer. Better one hundred bites, better the whip, vitriol, than this suffering in the head, this ghost of suffering which grazes and caresses and never hurts enough.”

Jean Paul Sartre No Exit

Act 1, sc. 5
No Exit (1944)

“Jupiter: I committed the first crime by creating men as mortals. After that, what more could you do, you the murderers?
Aegisteus: Come on; they already had death in them: at most you simply hastened things a little.”

Jean Paul Sartre The Flies

Act 2
The Flies (1943)

“His business is here, it is here that he is despised and vilified, it is here that he must carry out his undertaking”

Jean Paul Sartre book Saint Genet

Source: Saint Genet, Actor and Martyr (1952) (67)

“We are in hell and I will have my turn!”

Jean Paul Sartre No Exit

Inès warns Garcin and Estelle not to make love in her presence, Act 1, sc. 5
No Exit (1944)

“Your entire universe will not be enough to make me guilty. You are the king of the Gods, Jupiter, the king of the stones and of the stars, the king of the waves of the sea. But you are not the king of men.”

Jean Paul Sartre The Flies

Orestes, Act 3
The Flies (1943)

“Since he is unable to be the beloved, he will become the lover.”

Jean Paul Sartre book Saint Genet

Saint Genet, Actor and Martyr (1952)
Original: (90).

“But since he has decided to have the impossibility of living, every misfortune is an opportunity which lays this importance of living before his eyes and obliges him to decide, once again, to die.”

Jean Paul Sartre book Saint Genet

(158).
Saint Genet, Actor and Martyr (1952)

“I wanted pure love: foolishness; to love one another is to hate a common enemy: I will thus espouse your hatred. I wanted Good: nonsense; on this earth and in these times, Good and Bad are inseparable: I accept to be evil in order to become good.”

Jean Paul Sartre book The Devil and the Good Lord

Act 11, sc. 2
The Devil and the Good Lord (1951)

“It was a constraint; he makes of it his mission”

Jean Paul Sartre book Saint Genet

Saint Genet, Actor and Martyr (1952)
Original: (61).

“It is not the same thing. You are perhaps not lying, but you are not telling the truth.”

Jean Paul Sartre book The Devil and the Good Lord

Act 1
The Devil and the Good Lord (1951)

“…and if you are common, you can dress up as a woman, show you behind or write poems: there’s nothing offensive about a naked behind if it’s everybody’s; each person will be mirrored in it.”

Jean Paul Sartre book Saint Genet

(463).
Saint Genet, Actor and Martyr (1952)

“The For-itself, in fact, is nothing but the pure nihilation of the In-itself; it is like a hole of being at the heart of Being.”

Jean Paul Sartre book Being and Nothingness

Being and Nothingness (1943)

“One cannot become a saint when one works sixteen hours a day.”

Jean Paul Sartre book The Devil and the Good Lord

Act 5, sc. 2
The Devil and the Good Lord (1951)

“As if there could be true stories: things happen in one way, and we retell them in the opposite way.”

Jean Paul Sartre book Nausea

Nausea (1938)

“The painful secret of gods and kings is that men are free, Aegistheus. You know it and they do not.”

Jean Paul Sartre The Flies

Jupiter, Act 2
The Flies (1943)

“This is the contradiction of racism, colonialism, and all forms of tyranny: in order to treat a man like a dog, one must first recognize him as a man.”

Jean Paul Sartre book Critique of Dialectical Reason

Critique of Dialectical Reason (1960)

“Either the USSR was not the country of socialism, in which case socialism didn’t exist anywhere and doubtless, wasn’t possible: or else, socialism was that, this abominable monster, this police state, the power of beasts of prey.”

Jean Paul Sartre

Source: Les Temps modernes (1961), p. 184