Jean-Paul Sartre

I said to myself, 'I want to die decently'.

Existence is prior to essence.

I suppose it is out of laziness that the world is the same day after day. Today it seemed to want to change. And then anything, anything could happen.

Man exists, turns up, appears on the scene and only afterwards, defines himself

I was escaping from Nature and at last becoming myself, that Other whom I was aspiring to be in the eyes of others.

Several hours or several years make no difference once you have lost eternity.

Once liberty has exploded in the soul of a man, the gods can do nothing against that man.

Neither sex, without some fertilization of the complimentary characters of the other, is capable of the highest reaches of human endeavor.

If literature isn't everything, it's not worth a single hour of someone's trouble.

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

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

I confused things with their names: that is belief.

You must be afraid, my son. That is how one becomes an honest citizen.

The poor don't know that their function in life is to exercise our generosity.

It is only in our decisions that we are important.

Life has no meaning the moment you lose the illusion of being eternal.

Like all dreamers, I mistook disenchantment for truth.

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

I do not believe in God; his existence has been disproved by Science. But in the concentration camp, I learned to believe in men.

Only the guy who isn't rowing has time to rock the boat.

Commitment is an act, not a word.