“Generosity is nothing else than a craze to possess. All which I abandon, all which I give, I enjoy in a higher manner through the fact that I give it away…. To give is to enjoy possessively the object which one gives.”
Part 2
Being and Nothingness (1943)
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Jean Paul Sartre 321
French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, sc… 1905–1980Related quotes
From Waldersee's letter to his wife Mary Lee, after being promoted to major-general, c. August 1876, quoted in Wade James Trosclair, Alfred von Waldersee, monarchist: his private life, public image, and the limits of his ambition, 1882-1891
“If you possess something but you can't give it away, then you don't possess it… it possesses you.”
Tom Dreesen on the Late Show with David Letterman March 30th 2009 said that Frank Sinatra had said this after giving his $2000 cuff links to a fan.
[C]'est la vraie générosité ; vous donnez tout et rien ne semble jamais vous coûter.
All Men are Mortal (1946)
"For the Defense Written for the Associated Press, for use in my obituary" (20 November 1940)
1940s–present
Context: Having lived all my life in a country swarming with messiahs, I have been mistaken, perhaps quite naturally, for one myself, especially by the others. It would be hard to imagine anything more preposterous. I am, in fact, the complete anti-Messiah, and detest converts almost as much as I detest missionaries. My writings, such as they are, have had only one purpose: to attain for H. L. Mencken that feeling of tension relieved and function achieved which a cow enjoys on giving milk. Further than that, I have had no interest in the matter whatsoever. It has never given me any satisfaction to encounter one who said my notions had pleased him. My preference has always been for people with notions of their own. I have believed all my life in free thought and free speech—up to and including the utmost limits of the endurable.
Walking away from all the money would not accomplish that. It's like the Beatles. I couldn't walk away from the Beatles. That's one possession that's still tagging along, right?
Playboy interview (1980)
Quote (Tunisia, 16 April 1914), # 926, in: The Diaries of Paul Klee, 1898-1918, transl. Pierre B. Schneider, R.Y. Zachary and Max Knight; Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1964
1911 - 1914, Diary-notes from Tunisia' (1914)