If a victory is told in detail, one can no longer distinguish it from a defeat.
Jean-Paul SartreRead
I am neither virgin nor priest enough to play with the inner life.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests a nuanced understanding of the complexities of inner life and identity.
In this quote, Jean-Paul Sartre expresses the idea that one is not purely innocent ('virgin') nor entirely detached or authoritative ('priest') when it comes to exploring and engaging with the depths of one's inner life. He implies that navigating the complexities of our thoughts, feelings, and existential condition requires a balance of experiences and perspectives, rather than a simplistic or dogmatic approach.
Themes
ExistenceIdentitySelf-ReflectionPhilosophySartre
In practice
Example use cases
In a philosophical debate about existentialism and the nature of self.
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
Variant: When it is not in our power to follow what is true, we ought to follow what is most probable.
Rene DescartesRead
I kept having dreams all night. I thought they were touching me with their fingers. But dreams don't have fingers, they have fists, so it must have been scorpions.
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You don't have to teach people how to be human. You have to teach them how to stop being inhuman.
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One is almost tempted to say that the language itself is a mythology deprived of its vitality, a bloodless mythology so to speak, which has only preserved in a formal and abstract form what mythology contains in living and concrete form.
Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph SchellingRead
The most important relationship we can all have is the one you have with yourself, the most important journey you can take is one of self-discovery. To know yourself, you must spend time with yourself, you must not be afraid to be alone. Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.
AristotleRead
Crime generally punishes itself.
Oliver GoldsmithRead