If a victory is told in detail, one can no longer distinguish it from a defeat.
Jean-Paul SartreRead
Why do you keep maintaining your ideas are right if you can't prove them?
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote questions the validity of holding onto beliefs without evidence.
Jean-Paul Sartre challenges the notion of dogma, suggesting that one should not cling to their ideas as truths if there is no proof to substantiate them. It emphasizes the importance of critical thinking and the necessity of evidence in forming beliefs and opinions.
Themes
BeliefsEvidenceCritical ThinkingTruthPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate about climate change, one might use this quote to emphasize the need for scientific proof in discussions.
More from Jean-Paul Sartre
All quotes βAll I want is' - and he uttered the final words through clenched teeth and with a sort of shame - 'to retain my freedom.' I should myself have thought,' said Jacques, 'that freedom consisted in frankly confronting situations into which one had deliberately entered, and accepting all one's responsibilities. But that, no doubt, is not your view.
Jean-Paul SartreRead
If you are lonely when you're alone, you are in bad company.
Jean-Paul SartreRead
A kiss without a moustache, they said then, is like an egg without salt; I will add to it: and it is like Good without Evil.
Jean-Paul SartreRead
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 SartreRead
Night is falling: at dusk, you must have good eyesight to be able to tell the Good Lord from the Devil.
Jean-Paul SartreRead
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You believe that reality is something objective, external, existing in its own right. You also believe that the nature of reality is self-evident. When you delude yourself into thinking that you see something, you assume that everyone else sees the same thing as you. But I tell you, Winston, that reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else. Not in the individual mind, which can make mistakes, and in any case soon perishes: only in the mind of the Paty, which is collective and immortal.
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The object of terrorism is terrorism. The object of oppression is oppression. The object of torture is torture. The object of murder is murder. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?
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