If a victory is told in detail, one can no longer distinguish it from a defeat.
Jean-Paul SartreRead
Our responsibility is much greater than we might have supposed, because it involves all mankind.
Interpretation
Our duties extend far beyond ourselves; they encompass the well-being of all humanity.
Jean-Paul Sartre emphasizes the weight of our responsibilities as individuals, highlighting that our actions affect not just ourselves but all of humanity. This quote speaks to the interconnectedness of people and the moral obligations that arise from our shared existence, suggesting that we must consider the greater good in our decisions and commitments.
In practice
This quote can inspire groups advocating for global human rights.
If a victory is told in detail, one can no longer distinguish it from a defeat.
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.
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.
The Witch's Life" When I was a child there was an old woman in our neighborhood whom we called The Witch. All day she peered from her second story window from behind the wrinkled curtains and sometimes she would open the window and yell: Get out of my life! She had hair like kelp and a voice like a boulder. I think of her sometimes now and wonder if I am becoming her.
For there are very few so foolish who would not rather govern themselves than be governed by others.
His mouth opens. From inside him comes a slow stream, without breath, without interruption. It flows up through his body and out upon me; it passes through the cabin, through the wreck; washing the cliffs and shores of the island, it runs northward and southward to the ends of the earth. Soft and cold, dark and unending, it beats against my eyelids, against the skin of my face.
It's so graceless, being a martyr. It's honoring your adversaries too much.
When it works, anticipation is far more fulfilling than surprise, because we are reminded that a sunrise is precisely as magnificent as it is inevitable.
Barbarism is the absence of standards to which appeal can be made.
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