If a victory is told in detail, one can no longer distinguish it from a defeat.
There may be more beautiful times, but this one is ours.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the importance of cherishing the present moment, regardless of its beauty compared to past or future experiences.
Jean-Paul Sartre's quote reflects the value of living in the present and recognizing that each moment, while it may not be the most beautiful, is uniquely ours to experience. It suggests that beauty is subjective and that we should appreciate our current situation, finding significance in the time we have at hand, even amidst a world filled with potentially more beautiful moments.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about mindfulness, you might say, 'As Jean-Paul Sartre once said, 'There may be more beautiful times, but this one is ours,' reminding us to live in the moment.'
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.
If you are lonely when you're alone, you are in bad company.
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.
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.
Night is falling: at dusk, you must have good eyesight to be able to tell the Good Lord from the Devil.
Similar quotes
Most people dread finding out when they come to die that they have never really lived.
I knew medicine only by its absence - specifically, the absence of a father growing up: one who went to work before dawn and returned in the dark to a plate of reheated dinner.
It is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all.
Could man be drunk for ever With liquor, love, or fights, Lief should I rouse at morning And lief lie down of nights. But men at whiles are sober And think by fits and starts, And if they think, they fasten Their hands upon their hearts.
An unfulfilled vocation drains the color from a man's entire existence.
When I wake up in the morning, I feel just like any other insecure 24-year-old girl.