If a victory is told in detail, one can no longer distinguish it from a defeat.
Jean-Paul SartreRead
Man is fully responsible for his nature and his choices.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Humans are accountable for their actions and the essence of their character.
This quote by Jean-Paul Sartre emphasizes the existentialist belief that individuals are the architects of their own lives. It suggests that our choices define us and that we must take responsibility for our decisions, understanding that our essence is shaped by our actions rather than predetermined by external factors or societal expectations.
Themes
ResponsibilityChoicesExistentialismNatureIdentity
In practice
Example use cases
In a philosophy class discussing ethics, this quote can prompt a debate about moral responsibility.
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
Similar quotes
For it is with the mysteries of our religion, as with wholesome pills for the sick, which swallowed whole, have the virtue to cure; but chewed, are for the most part cast up again without effect.
Thomas HobbesRead
At least I know I'm bewildered about the really fundamental and important facts of the universe.
Terry PratchettRead
To swallow and follow, whether old doctrine or new propaganda, is a weakness still dominating the human mind.
Charlotte Perkins GilmanRead
There's a kind of optimism specifically within Christianity about the world - about whose side God is on. Well, I didn't have any of that in my background. I had physicality and chaos.
Ta-Nehisi CoatesRead
Governments, if they endure, always tend increasingly toward aristocratic forms. No government in history has been known to evade this pattern. And as the aristocracy develops, government tends more and more to act exclusively in the interests of the ruling class -- whether that class be hereditary royalty, oligarchs of financial empires, or entrenched bureaucracy.
Frank HerbertRead
But I believe above all that I wanted to build the palace of my memory, because my memory is my only homeland.
Anselm KieferRead