"A writer must refuse to allow himself to be transformed into an institution, even if it takes place in the most honorable form."
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Jean-Paul Sartre quotes (page 7 of 24)
464 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"Generosity is nothing else than a craze to possess. All which I abandon, all which I give, I enjoy in a higher manner through the fact that I give it away. To give is to enjoy possessively the object which one gives."
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"I am a man, Jupiter, and each man must invent his own path."
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"In a word, man must create his own essence: it is in throwing himself into the world, suffering there, struggling there, that he gradually defines himself."
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"Once freedom lights its beacon in man's heart, the gods are powerless against him."
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"I'd come to realize that all our troubles spring from our failure to use plain, clear-cut language."
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"Violence is good for those who have nothing to lose."
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"Nothingness haunts Being."
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"Every human endeavor, however singular it seems, involves the whole human race."
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"There are photographers who push for war because they make stories. They search for a Chinese who has a more Chinese are than the others and they end up finding one. They have him take a typically Chinese pose and surround him with chinoiseries. What have they captured on their film? A Chinese? Definitely not: the idea of the Chinese."
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"I have such a desire to sleep and am so much behind my sleep. A good night, one good night and all this nonsense will be swept away."
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"Man can will nothing unless he has first understood that he must count on no one but himself."
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"It is only in our decisions that we are important."
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"A lost battle is a battle one thinks one has lost."
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"I have no need for good souls: an accomplice is what I wanted."
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"[M]an is condemned to be free. Condemned, because he did not create himself, in other respect is free; because, once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does. The Existentialist does not believe in the power of passion. He will never agree that a sweeping passion is a ravaging torrent which fatally leads a man to certain acts and is therefore an excuse. He thinks that man is responsible for his passion."
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"As for the square at Meknes, where I used to go every day, it's even simpler: I do not see it at all anymore. All that remains is the vague feeling that it was charming, and these five words that are indivisibly bound together: a charming square at Meknes. ... I don't see anything any more: I can search the past in vain, I can only find these scraps of images and I am not sure what they represent, whether they are memories or just fiction."
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"To read a poem in January is as lovely as to go for a walk in June"
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"It answers the question that was tormenting you: my love, you are not 'one thing in my life' - not even the most important - because my life no longer belongs to me because...you are always me."
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"At times discreetly, at times disgustingly, I yielded to the most fatal temptation whenever I could no longer bear it: as a result of impatience, Orpheus lost Eurydice; as a result of impatience, I lost myself."
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