If a victory is told in detail, one can no longer distinguish it from a defeat.
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects the complexity of love and morality, suggesting that love and goodness cannot exist without their opposites.
Jean-Paul Sartre expresses a profound philosophical idea about the intertwined nature of love, hatred, good, and evil. He suggests that the desire for pure love and goodness is naive in a world where these concepts are complex and often in opposition to one another. Thus, to truly love, one must acknowledge the existence of shared adversities and the acceptance of moral ambiguity.
Themes
LoveGoodEvilPhilosophyCompassionHatred
In practice
Example use cases
To illustrate the complexities of relationships during a discussion on ethics in a philosophy class.
More from Jean-Paul Sartre
All quotes →All 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
Night is falling: at dusk, you must have good eyesight to be able to tell the Good Lord from the Devil.
Jean-Paul SartreRead
Every age has its own poetry; in every age the circumstances of history choose a nation, a race, a class to take up the torch by creating situations that can be expressed or transcended only through poetry.
Jean-Paul SartreRead
Similar quotes
Sleep is perverse as human nature, Sleep is perverse as a legislature, Sleep is as forward as hives or goiters, And where it is least desired, it loiters.
Ogden NashRead
If something is not beautiful, it is probably not true.
John KeatsRead
We must reserve a back shop all our own entirely free, in which to establish our real liberty and our principal retreat and solitude.
Michel De MontaigneRead
You don't like to be lied to, by your friends or in your business dealings. So why would you want to be lied to when it comes to the origin of life or the fate of the planet?
Steven PinkerRead
I exist in the depths of solitude pondering my true goal Trying 2 find peace of mind and still preserve my soul
Tupac ShakurRead
In life our first job is this, to divide and distinguish things into two categories: externals I cannot control, but the choices I make with regard to them I do control. Where will I find good and bad? In me, in my choices.
EpictetusRead