Quotes from Jean-Paul Sartre

Man is what he wills himself to be.

Man is not the sum of what he has already, but rather the sum of what he does not yet have, of what he could have.

Genius is what a man invents when he is looking for a way out.

I am a man, Jupiter, and each man must invent his own path.

Once freedom lights its beacon in man's heart, the gods are powerless against him.

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.

Man can will nothing unless he has first understood that he must count on no one but himself.

God is absence. God is the solitude of man.

Fear? If I have gained anything by damning myself, it is that I no longer have anything to fear.

I confused things with their names: that is belief.

Man is fully responsible for his nature and his choices.

I say a murder is abstract. You pull the trigger and after that you do not understand anything that happens.

When we love animals and children too much, we love them at the expense of men.

Man must be invented each day

It is the same: a chosen one is a man whom God's finger crushes against the wall.

The existentialist says at once that man is anguish.

A man who is free is like a mangy sheep in a herd. He will contaminate my entire kingdom and ruin my work.

Never have I thought that I was the happy possessor of a "talent;" my sole concern has been to save myself by work and faith.

Commitment is an act, not a word.

All human actions are equivalent and all are on principle doomed to failure.

As for me, I am mean: that means that I need the suffering of others to exist. A flame. A flame in their hearts. When I am all alone, I am extinguished.

Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself.

So this is hell. I'd never have believed it. You remember all we were told about the torture-chambers, the fire and brimstone, the burning marl. Old wives' tales! There's no need for red-hot pokers. Hell is—other people!

I am. I am, I exist, I think, therefore I am; I am because I think, why do I think? I don't want to think any more, I am because I think that I don't want to be, I think that I . . . because . . . ugh!