Jean-Paul Sartre

Existentialism Is a Humanism By Jean-Paul Sartre

Existentialism Is a Humanism

maia

When Descartes said, "Conquer yourself rather than the world," what he meant was, at bottom, the same - that we should act without hope.

Dostoevsky once wrote: "If God did not exist, everything would be permitted"; and that, for existentialism, is the starting point“

And at the point of departure there cannot be any other truth than this, I think, therefore I am.

Man is not only that which he conceives himself to be, but that which he wills himself to be, and since he conceives of himself only after he exists, just as he wills himself to be after being thrown into existence, man is nothing other than what he makes of himself.

Thus, the first effect of existentialism is to make every man conscious of what he is, and to make him solely responsible for his own existence. And when we say that man is responsible for himself, we do not mean that he is responsible only for his own individuality, but that he is responsible for all men.

... there is no love other than the deeds of loves; no potential for love other than that which is manifested in loving. There is no genius other than that which is experessed in works of art.

... the coward makes himself cowardly and the hero makes himself heroic; there is always the possiblity that one day the coward may no longer be cowardly and the hero may cease to be a hero. What matters is the total commitment, but there is no one particular situation or action that fully commits you, one way or the other.

Existentialism Is a Humanism quotes

Join the club