Jean-Paul Sartre

Quotes are word for word from the source.

• Universal responsibility

  “Our responsibility is much greater than we might have supposed, because it involves all mankind.”

  Our noteExplaining the connection between existentialism and human emotions.

• Timing and action

  “Three o'clock is always too late or too early for anything you want to do.”

  Our noteSartre reflects on the awkwardness of certain moments in time for starting tasks.

• Nature of anguish

  “It is certain that we cannot escape anguish, for we are anguish.”

  Our noteDescribing the inherent anxiety of human existence and choice.

• Commitment to action

  “Some men are born committed to action: they do not have a choice, they have been thrown on a path, at the end of that path, an act awaits them, their act.”

  Our noteReflecting on individuals who find their purpose through inevitable action.

• The secret of freedom

  “The bane of gods and kings. The bitterness of knowing men are free. Yes, Aegistheus they are free. But your subjects do not know it, and you do.”

  Our noteZeus reveals that the power of leaders relies on subjects not realizing their own freedom.

• Sum of actions

  “Man is nothing else but what he purposes, he exists only in so far as he realizes himself, he is therefore nothing else but the sum of his actions, nothing else but what his life is.”

  Our noteDefining human existence as the accumulation of one's choices and deeds.

• Cost of conflict

  “When the rich make war, it's the poor that die.”

  Our noteA comment on the social consequences of war.

• Focus on today

  “Do you think that I count the days? There is only one day left, always starting over: it is given to us at dawn and taken away from us at dusk.”

  Our noteContemplating the repetitive and singular nature of time and existence.

• Taking radical responsibility

  “What matters is not what is being done of us, but what we do ourselves with what has been done of us.”

  Our noteExplaining the core of existential choice and personal agency.

• Turning constraints into mission

  “It was a constraint; he makes of it his mission”

  Our noteDescribing how an individual transforms external limitations into a personal purpose.