Original: (fr) L’important n’est pas ce qu’on fait de nous mais ce que nous faisons nous-même de ce qu’on a fait de nous.
Source: Saint Genet, Actor and Martyr (1952), p.55
“Freedom is what we do with what is done to us.”
Variant: Freedom is what you do with what's been done to you.
Last update June 2, 2022.
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Jean Paul Sartre 321
French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, sc… 1905–1980Related quotes
We can quite well turn away from our true destiny, but only to fall a prisoner in the deeper dungeons of our destiny. … Theoretic truths not only are disputable, but their whole meaning and force lie in their being disputed, they spring from discussion. They live as long as they are discussed, and they are made exclusively for discussion. But destiny — what from a vital point of view one has to be or has not to be — is not discussed, it is either accepted or rejected. If we accept it, we are genuine; if not, we are the negation, the falsification of ourselves. Destiny does not consist in what we feel we should like to do; rather is it recognised in its clear features in the consciousness that we must do what we do not feel like doing.
Source: The Revolt of the Masses (1929), Chapter XI: The Self-Satisfied Age
Richard Rohr
(1943) American spiritual writer, speaker, teacher, Catholic Franciscan priest
Source: Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemplative Prayer (1999), p. 93
“The purpose of life is not to do what we want but what needs to be done.”
Variant: The purpose of life is not to do what we want but what needs to be done. This is what fate demands of us.
Source: Brisingr
Barack Obama
(1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2011, Address on interventions in Libya (March 2011)
Context: I’d like to update the American people on the international effort that we have led in Libya — what we’ve done, what we plan to do, and why this matters to us.
I want to begin by paying tribute to our men and women in uniform who, once again, have acted with courage, professionalism and patriotism. They have moved with incredible speed and strength. Because of them and our dedicated diplomats, a coalition has been forged and countless lives have been saved.
Meanwhile, as we speak, our troops are supporting our ally Japan, leaving Iraq to its people, stopping the Taliban’s momentum in Afghanistan, and going after al Qaeda all across the globe. As Commander-in-Chief, I’m grateful to our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, Coast Guardsmen, and to their families. And I know all Americans share in that sentiment.
Michelle Wu
(1985) City Councilor in Boston, Massachusetts
24 June 2022 "Boston Mayor Michelle Wu says overturning Roe v. Wade will 'ruin lives'" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrmQGDRoWCY
Cornstalk
(1720–1777) Native American in the American Revolution
Cornstalk to Shawnee council after the Battle of Point Pleasant (October 1774), as quoted in I Have Spoken : American History through the voices of the Indians (1971) by Virginia Irving Armstrong, p. 27
Variant: Let us kill all our women and children, and go fight till we die.
As quoted in Best Little Stories from Virginia (2003) by C. Brian Kelly, p. 74
Context: What shall we do now? the big knife is coming on us and we shall all be killed. Now we must fight or we are done. Then let us kill all our women and children and go fight until we die? I shall go and make peace!
“Variant: What is not yet done is only what we have not yet attempted to do.”
Source: Democracy in America, Volume I (1835), Chapter XV-IXX, Chapter XVIII.