Jean Paul Sartre: Man

Jean Paul Sartre was French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. Explore interesting quotes on man.
Jean Paul Sartre: 642   quotes 51   likes

“Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself.”

Jean Paul Sartre

No Exit (1944)
Variant: A man is what he wills himself to be.
Source: Existentialism and Human Emotions

“God is the solitude of men. There was only me: I alone decided to commit Evil; alone, I invented Good. I am the one who cheated, I am the one who performed miracles, I am the one accusing myself today, I alone can absolve myself; me, the man.”

Jean Paul Sartre book The Devil and the Good Lord

Act 10, sc. 4
The Devil and the Good Lord (1951)

Men , God , Solitude , Evil

“Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.”

Jean Paul Sartre book Being and Nothingness

Being and Nothingness (1943)

World

“Ah! Do not judge the gods, young man, they have painful secrets.”

Jean Paul Sartre The Flies

Jupiter, Act 1
The Flies (1943)

God , Pain , Secret

“Everything is indeed permitted if God does not exist, and man is in consequence forlorn, for he cannot find anything to depend upon either within or outside himself.”

Jean Paul Sartre

Lecture given in 1946 (Existentialism from Dostoyevsky to Sartre, ed. Walter Kaufman, Meridian Publishing Company, 1989;) http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/sartre/works/exist/sartre.htm (1946)
Context: Dostoevsky once wrote: “If God did not exist, everything would be permitted”; and that, for existentialism, is the starting point. Everything is indeed permitted if God does not exist, and man is in consequence forlorn, for he cannot find anything to depend upon either within or outside himself. He discovers forthwith, that he is without excuse.

God , Dependency

“Man is condemned to be free. Condemned because he did not create himself, yet is nevertheless at liberty, and from the moment he is thrown into this world he is responsible for everything he does.”

Jean Paul Sartre
World

“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)
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.

World

“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
Life

“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

“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)

Dogs

“Understand me: I wish to be a man from somewhere, a man among men. You see, a slave, when he passes by, weary and surly, carrying a heavy load, limping along and looking down at his feet, only at his feet to avoid falling down; he is in his town, like a leaf in greenery, like a tree in a forest, argos surrounds him, heavy and warm, full of herself; I want to be that slave, Electra, I want to pull the city around me and to roll myself up in it like a blanket. I will not leave.”

Jean Paul Sartre The Flies

Orestes to Electra, Act 2
The Flies (1943)

Men , Understanding , Tree

“Who can exhaust a man? Who knows a man’s resources?”

Jean Paul Sartre book Nausea

Nausea (1938)

“I do not give a damn about the dead. They died for the [Communist] Party and the Party can decide what it wants. I practice a live man’s politics, for the living.”

Jean Paul Sartre Dirty Hands

Act 5, sc. 3
Dirty Hands (1948)

Dead

“The live dead-man is dead as a producer and alive insofar as he consumes”

Jean Paul Sartre book Saint Genet

139
Saint Genet, Actor and Martyr (1952)

Dead

“You know how much I admire Che Guevara. In fact, I believe that the man was not only an intellectual but also the most complete human being of our age: as a fighter and as a man, as a theoretician who was able to further the cause of revolution by drawing his theories from his personal experience in battle.”

Jean Paul Sartre

As quoted in Marianne Sinclair's !Viva Che!: Contributions in Tribute to Ernesto 'Che' Guevara (1968)

Age , Drawing , Personality

“Listen to me: a family man is never a real family man. An assassin is never entirely assassin. They play a role, you understand. While a dead man, he is really dead. To be or not to be, right?”

Jean Paul Sartre Dirty Hands

Hugo, Act 4, sc. 6
Dirty Hands (1948)

Family , Understanding , Dead