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A Writer Must Refuse To Allow Himself To Be Transformed Into An Institution.
-Jean-Paul Sartre
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A Writer Must Refuse

Jean-Paul Sartre
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A Writer Must Refuse To Allow Himself To Be Transformed Into An Institution.

Understanding the Quote: "a writer must refuse to allow himself to be transformed into an..."

This quote by Jean-Paul Sartre reflects deeply on the theme of humility. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Humility, Institutions, Refuse, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Jean-Paul Sartre interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Jean-Paul Sartre

Jean-Paul Sartre is celebrated for insightful thoughts on humility and institutions. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Humility
Institutions
Refuse
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Your Scare Me Rather. My Reflection In The Glass Never Did That; Of Course, I Knew It So Well. Like Something I Had Tamed...i'm Going To Smile, And My Smile Will Sink Down Into Your Pupils, And Heaven Knows What It Will Become.
Reflection
Glasses
Heaven
I Think That Is The Big Danger In Keeping A Diary: You Exaggerate Everything.
Thinking
Diaries
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Heroism Is Not To Be Won At The Point Of A Pen.
Heroism
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For Forty Years I Was Conscripted By The Absolute, The Neurosis. The Absolute Is Gone. There Remain Countless Tasks Among Which Literature Is In No Way Privileged.
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She Believed In Nothing; Only Her Skepticism Kept Her From Being An Atheist.
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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.
Memories
Past
Squares
Once Liberty Has Exploded In The Soul Of A Man, The Gods Can Do Nothing Against That Man.
Men
Soul
Liberty
I Am Alone In The Midst Of These Happy, Reasonable Voices. All These Creatures Spend Their Time Explaining, Realizing Happily That They Agree With Each Other. In Heaven's Name, Why Is It So Important To Think The Same Things All Together.
Thinking
Names
Voice
Man Is Always A Wizard To Man, And The Social World Is At First Magical.
Men
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World
This [service To Oppressed] Is The Writer's Task, And, If He Fulfills It As He Should, He Acquires No Merit From It.
Merit
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To Believe Is To Know You Believe, And To Know You Believe Is Not To Believe.
Spiritual
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I Committed The First Crime By Creating Men As Mortals. After That, What More Could You Do, You The Murderers? Come On; They Already Had Death In Them: At Most You Simply Hastened Things A Little.
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Man Is What He Wills Himself To Be.
Men
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To Eat Is To Appropriate By Destruction.
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Man Is Fully Responsible For His Nature And His Choices.
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I Grow Warm, I Begin To Feel Happy. There Is Nothing Extraordinary In This, It Is A Small Happiness Of Nausea: It Spreads At The Bottom Of The Viscous Puddle, At The Bottom Of Out Time - The Time Of Purple Suspenders, And Broken Chair Seats; It Is Made Of White, Soft Instants, Spreading At The Edge, Like An Oil Stain. No Sooner Than Born, It Is Already Old, It Seems As Though I Have Known It For Twenty Years.
Purple
Oil
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When My Relations With The Communist Party Gave Me The Necessary Perspective I Decided To Write My Autobiography. I Wanted To Show How A Man Can Pass From Literature Held Sacred To Action Which Nevertheless Remains That Of An Intellectual.
Party
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The Poor Don't Know That Their Function In Life Is To Exercise Our Generosity.
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On My Way To The Office In The Morning, There Are, In Front Of Me, Behind Me, Other Men Going To Their Jobs. I See Them; If I Dared, I Would Smile At Them. I Think To Myself That I Am A Socialist, That They Are The Purpose Of My Life, Of My Efforts And That They Do Not Know It Yet.
Morning
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I Do Not Think Therefore I Am A Moustache
Thinking
Moustache
I Am Beginning To Believe That Nothing Can Ever Be Proved. These Are Honest Hypotheses Which Take The Facts Into Account: But I Sense So Definitely That They Come From Me, And That They Are Simply A Way Of Unifying My Own Knowledge. Not A Glimmer Comes From Rollebon's Side. Slow, Lazy, Sulky, The Facts Adapt Themselves To The Rigour Of The Order I Wish To Give Them; But It Remains Outside Of Them. I Have The Feeling Of Doing A Work Of Pure Imagination.
Believe
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Some Of These Days, Oh, You'll Miss Me Honey
Missing
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If You Begin By Saying, 'thou Shalt Not Lie,' There Is No Longer Any Possibility Of Political Action.
Lying
Political
Politics
If You Are Lonely When You're Alone, You Are In Bad Company.
Inspirational
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The Aim Of Language...is To Communicate...to Impart To Others The Results One Has Obtained...as I Talk, I Reveal The Situation...i Reveal It To Myself And To Others In Order To Change It.
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Criticism Often Takes From The Tree Caterpillars And Blossoms Together.
Tree
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Our Responsibility Is Much Greater Than We Might Have Supposed, Because It Involves All Mankind.
Responsibility
Might
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L'homme Est Une Passion Inutile. Man Is A Useless Passion.
Passion
Men
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What Is Not Possible Is Not To Choose.
I Am Not Recommending "popular" Literature Which Aims At The Lowest.
Literature
Aim
Popular Literature
With Despair, True Optimism Begins: The Optimism Of The Man Who Expects Nothing, Who Knows He Has No Rights And Nothing Coming To Him, Who Rejoices In Counting On Himself Alone And In Acting Alone For The Good Of All.
Men
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I Am Not Virtuous. Our Sons Will Be If We Shed Enough Blood To Give Them The Right To Be.
Son
Blood
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I Consider Les Nourritures Terrestres As A Frightening Book: "look For God In No Other Place Than Everywhere." Go And Tell That To A Workman, An Engineer!
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Workmen
One Could Only Damage Oneself Through The Harm One Did To Others. One Could Never Get Directly At Oneself.
Damage
Harm
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The Universe Remains Dark. We Are Animals Struck By Catastrophe.
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The Painful Secret Of Gods And Kings Is That Men Are Free, Aegistheus. You Know It And They Do Not.
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Men
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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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Filled Up
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Plunge
Man Is Condemned To Be Free; Because Once Thrown Into The World, He Is Responsible For Everything He Does.
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There Is Only One Day Left, Always Starting Over: It Is Given To Us At Dawn And Taken Away From Us At Dusk.
Philosophical
Taken
Sunset
What's Done At Night Belongs To The Night. In The Daytime You Don't Talk About It.
Night
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Daytime
The Writer Is Committed When He Plunges To The Very Depths Of Himself With The Intent To Disclose, Not His Individuality, But His Person In The Complex Society That Conditions And Supports Him.
Support
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Depth
Man Exists, Turns Up, Appears On The Scene And Only Afterwards, Defines Himself
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Life Is Nothing Until It Is Lived; But It Is Yours To Make Sense Of, And The Of It Is Nothing Other Than The Sense You Choose.
Art
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Everything That Exists Is Born For No Reason, Carries On Living Through Weakness, And Dies By Accident
Philosophical
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Originally, Poetry Creates The Myth, While The Prose-writer Draws Its Portrait.
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So It Comes To This; One Doesn’t Need Rest. Why Bother About Sleep If One Isn’t Sleepy? That Stands To Reason, Doesn’t It? Wait A Minute, There’s A Snag Somewhere; Something Disagreeable. Why, Now, Should It Be Disagreeable? …ah, I See; It’s Life Without A Break.
Sleep
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So Long As One Believes In God, One Has The Right To Do The Good In Order To Be Moral.
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Objects Should Not Touch Because They Are Not Alive. You Use Them, Put Them Back In Place, You Live Among Them: They Are Useful, Nothing More. But They Touch Me, It Is Unbearable. I Am Afraid Of Being In Contact With Them As Though They Were Living Beasts.
Nausea
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People Who Live In Society Have Learnt How To See Themselves, In Mirrors, As They Appear To Their Friends. I Have No Friends: Is That Why My Flesh Is So Naked?
Mirrors
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Words There Is No Good Father, That's The Rule. Don't Lay The Blame On Men But On The Bond Of Paternity, Which Is Rotten. To Beget Children, Nothing Better; To Have Them, What Iniquity!
Children
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For The Moment, The Jazz Is Playing; There Is No Melody, Just Notes, A Myriad Tiny Tremors. The Notes Know No Rest, An Inflexibleorder Gives Birth To Them Then Destroys Them, Without Ever Leaving Them The Chance To Recuperate And Exist For Themselves.... I Would Like To Hole Them Back, But I Know That, If I Succeeded In Stooping One, There Would Only Remain In May Hand A Corrupt And Languishing Sound. I Must Accept Their Death; I Must Even Want That Death: I Know Of Few More Bitter Or Intense Impressions.
Music
Hands
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I Had Dreamed My Life For Nearly Fifty Years (i Am About To Be Fifty-nine). But, You See, There Are Two Tones In Les Mats: The Echo Of This Condemnation And A Mitigation Of That Severity.
Two
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Years
What I Lacked [in La Nausee] Was A Sense Of Reality. I Have Changed Since. I Have Slowly Learned To Experience Reality.
Reality
Changed
I Have Changed
Several Hours Or Several Years Make No Difference Once You Have Lost Eternity.
Years
Differences
Hours
Many Young People Today Do Not Concern Themselves With Style. They Think That What One Says Should Be Said Simply And That Is All. For Me, Style - Which Does Not Exclude Simplicity, Quite The Opposite - Is Above All A Way Of Saying Three Or Four Things In One. There Is The Simple Sentence, With Its Immediate Meaning, And Then At The Same Time, Below This Immediate Meaning, Other Meanings Are Organized. If One Is Not Capable Of Giving Language This Plurality Of Meaning, Then It Is Not Worth The Trouble To Write.
Writing
Simple
Thinking
The Form [of Literature] Matters Little To Me, Classical Or Not.
Littles
Matter
Literature
I Can Receive Nothing More From These Tragic Solitudes Than A Little Empty Purity.
Solitude
Littles
Purity
Words Are Loaded Pistols.
Thought Provoking
Pistols
Existentialism
A Writer Who Takes Political, Social Or Literary Positions Must Act Only With The Means That Are His. These Means Are The Written Words.
Mean
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The Coward Makes Himself Cowardly, The Hero Makes Himself Heroic.
Hero
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Heroic
What Then Did You Expect When You Unbound The Gag That Muted Those Black Mouths? That They Would Chant Your Praises? Did You Think That When Those Heads That Our Fathers Had Forcibly Bowed Down To The Ground Were Raised Again, You Would Find Adoration In Their Eyes?
Father
Eye
Thinking
I Believe, I Desire, That Social And Economic Ills May Be Remedied.
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Desire
May
As If There Could Be True Stories: Things Happen In One Way, And We Retell Them In The Opposite Way.
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Stories
We Must Act Out Passion Before We Can Feel It.
Inspirational
Philosophical
Passion
We Are Our Choices.
Choices
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Existence Is Prior To Essence.
Essence
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That’s What Existence Means: Draining One’s Own Self Dry Without The Sense Of Thirst.
Mean
Self
Dry
Existence Is Not Something Which Lets Itself Be Thought Of Form A Distance; It Must Invade You Suddenly, Master You, Weigh Heavily On Your Heart Like A Great Motionless Beast - Or Else There Is Nothing At All.
Distance
Heart
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Perception Is Naturally Surpassed Toward Action; Better Yet, It Can Be Revealed Only In And Through Projects Of Action. The World Is Revealed As An "always Future Hollow", For We Are Always Future To Ourselves.
Perception
World
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I Have Always Been Happy. Even If I Had Been More Honest With Regard To Myself At That Moment I Should Still Have Written La Nausee.
Honest
Moments
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He Who Asks A Question Is A Fool For A Minute; He Who Does Not Remains A Fool Forever. When You Realize That By Changing Your Perspective, Big Things Can Be Seen As Little Things, It Becomes Much Harder To Worry About Anything. Commitment Is An Act, Not A Word.
Commitment
Perspective
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A Writer Must Refuse To Allow Himself To Be Transformed Into An Institution, Even If It Takes Place In The Most Honorable Form.
Honesty
Integrity
Character
Anything, Anything Would Be Better Than This Agony Of Mind, This Creeping Pain That Gnaws And Fumbles And Caresses One And Never Hurts Quite Enough.
Hurt
Pain
Agony
I Wrote In Les Mots That "i Have Often Thought Against Myself." That Sentence Has Not Been Understood Either. Critics Have Seen In It A Confession Of Masochism. But That Is How One Should Think: Revolting Against Everything "inculcated'' That One May Have Within Oneself.
Thinking
May
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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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June
Lovely
Intellectuals Cannot Be Good Revolutionaries; They Are Just Good Enough To Be Assassins.
Assassins
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I Exist, That Is All, And I Find It Nauseating.
Existentialism
Existence
I Think Of Death Only With Tranquility, As An End. I Refuse To Let Death Hamper Life. Death Must Enter Life Only To Define It.
Thinking
Tranquility
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At That Time [1954], As A Result Of Political Events, I Was Deeply Preoccupied By My Relations With The Communist Party.
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To Know What Life Is Worth You Have To Risk It Once In A While.
Inspirational
Risk
Life Is
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[stéphane Mallarmé] Theory Of The Hermetic Is A Mistake, But He Can Be Only Difficult To Read When He Has Difficult Things To Say.
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Theory
Difficult
An Individual Chooses And Makes Himself.
Individual
We Will Not Go To Heaven,goetz, And Even If We Both Entered It, We Would Not Have Eyes To See Each Other, Nor Hands To Touch Each Other. Up There, God Gets All The Attention.... We Can Only Love On This Earth And Against God.
Life
Eye
Hands
Let It Crumble! Let The Rocks Revile Me And Flowers Wilt At My Coming. Your Whole Universe Is Not Enough To Prove Me Wrong. You Are The King Of Gods, King Of Stones And Stars, King Of The Waves Of The Sea. But You Are Not The King Of Man.
Kings
Stars
Flower
A Good Hanging Now And Then -- That Entertains Folk In The Provinces And Robs Death Of Its Glamour.
Now And Then
Glamour
Folks
He Was Free, Free In Every Way, Free To Behave Like A Fool Or A Machine, Free To Accept, Free To Refuse, Free To Equivocate; To Marry, To Give Up The Game, To Drag This Death Weight About With Him For Years To Come. He Could Do What He Liked, No One Had The Right To Advise Him, There Would Be For Him No Good Or Evil Unless He Thought Them Into Being.
Giving Up
Years
Games
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Years
Mind
Literature
Because The Nazi Venom Worked Its Way Even Into Our Thoughts, Every Accurate Thought Was A Conquest; Because An All-powerful Police Sought To Force Us Into Silence Every Word Became As Precious As A Declaration Of Principle; Because We Were Persecuted, Each Of Our Gestures Carried The Weight Of A Commitment.
Powerful
Commitment
Silence
To Keep Hope Alive One Must, In Spite Of All Mistakes, Horrors, And Crimes, Recognize The Obvious Superiority Of The Socialist Camp.
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Alive
Horror
What Is Life But An Unpleasant Interruption To A Peaceful Nonexistence.
Peaceful
What Is Life
Interruptions
Nothingness Haunts Being.
Existentialism
Nothingness
You Know How Much I Admire Che Guevara. In Fact, I Believe That The Man Was Not Only An Intellectual But Also The Most Complete Human Being Of Our Age: As A Fighter And As A Man, As A Theoretician Who Was Able To Further The Cause Of Revolution By Drawing His Theories From His Personal Experience In Battle.
Believe
Men
Drawing
Everything In My Past, In My Training, Everything That Has Been Most Essential In My Activity Up To Now Has Made Me Above All A Man Who Writes, And It Is Too Late For That To Change.
Writing
Past
Men
A Writer Must Refuse To Allow Himself To Be Transformed Into An Institution.
Humility
Institutions
Refuse
I Am Neither Virgin Nor Priest Enough To Play With The Inner Life.
Play
Enough
Priests
Outside Nature, Against Nature, Without Excuse, Beyond Remedy, Except What Remedy I Find Within Myself.
Excuse
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I Have No Need For Good Souls: An Accomplice Is What I Wanted.
Philosophical
Soul
Needs
Torture Is Senseless Violence, Born In Fear... Torture Costs Human Lives But Does Not Save Them. We Would Almost Be Too Lucky If These Crimes Were The Work Of Savages: The Truth Is That Torture Makes Torturers.
Doe
Savages
Lucky
But I Must Finally Realize That I Am Subject To These Sudden Transformations. The Thing Is That I Rarely Think; A Crowd Of Small Metamorphoses Accumulate In Me Without My Noticing It, And Then, One Fine Day, A Veritable Revolution Takes Place.
Thinking
Crowds
Revolution
I Found The Human Heart Empty And Insipid Everywhere Except In Books.
Book
Heart
Empty
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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Bears
Impatience
Fascism Is Not Defined By The Number Of Its Victims, But By The Way It Kills Them.
Military
Philosophical
Numbers
I Do Not Give A Damn About The Dead. They Died For The [communist] Party And The Party Can Decide What It Wants. I Practice A Live Man's Politics, For The Living.
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Men
Practice
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.
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Hate
Order
Man Can Will Nothing Unless He Has First Understood That He Must Count On No One But Himself.
Men
Firsts
Existentialism
To Be Responsible Is To Be The Uncontested Author Of An Event Or Thing.
Events
Responsible
Being Responsible
Little Flashes Of Sun On The Surface Of A Cold, Dark Sea.
Dark
Sea
Sun
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Hands
Circles
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Opposites
Needs
Biographies
For The Artist, The Color, The Bouquet, The Tinkling Of The Spoon On The Saucer, Are Things In The Highest Degree. He Stops At The Quality Of The Sound Or The Form. He Returns To It Constantly And Is Enchanted With It.
Artist
Color
Quality
It Is No Longer Possible To Escape Men. Farewell To The Monsters, Farewell To The Saints. Farewell To Pride. All That Is Left Is Men.
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Pride
Men
One Is Still What One Is Going To Cease To Be And Already What One Is Going To Become. One Lives One's Death, One Dies One's Life.
Death
Existence Of Life
Existentialism
It Is Meaningless That We Are Born, It Is Meaningless That We Die.
Born
Dies
Meaningless
There May Be More Beautiful Times, But This One Is Ours.
Beautiful
May
Chaos
I Am No Longer Sure Of Anything. If I Satiate My Desires, I Sin But I Deliver Myself From Them; If I Refuse To Satisfy Them, They Infect The Whole Soul.
Soul
Desire
Existentialism
All I Can Do Is Make The Best Of What I Am, Become Accustomed To It, Evaluate The Possibilities, And Take Advantage Of Them The Best I Can.
Possibility
Advantage
Accustomed
Commitment Is An Act, Not A Word.
Inspirational
Commitment
Interesting
Man Is The Being Whose Project It Is To Be God.
Men
Projects
But For Me There Is Neither Monday Nor Sunday: There Are Days Which Pass In Disorder, And Then, Sudden Lightning Like This One. Nothing Has Changed And Yet Everything Is Different. I Can't Describe It, It's Like The Nausea And Yet It's Just The Opposite: At Last An Adventure Happens To Me And When I Question Myself I See That It Happens That I Am Myself And That I Am Here; I Am The One Who Splits In The Night, I Am As Happy As The Hero Of A Novel.
Monday
Hero
Adventure
Besides One Should Not Believe That The People Only Want Reading That Is Easy To Absorb.
Reading
Believe
People
What Do You Want To Do With The [communist] Party? A Racing Stable? What Good Is It To Sharpen A Knife Every Day If You Never Useit For Slicing? A Party Is Never More Than A Means. There Is Only One Objective: Power.
Party
Mean
Power
It’s The Well-behaved Children That Make The Most Formidable Revolutionaries. They Don’t Say A Word, They Don’t Hide Under The Table, They Eat Only One Piece Of Chocolate At A Time. But Later On, They Make Society Pay Dearly.
Children
Chocolate
Pieces
For An Occurrence To Become An Adventure, It Is Necessary And Sufficient For One To Recount It.
Travel
Adventure
Funny Travel
Total War Is No Longer War Waged By All Members Of One National Community Against All Those Of Another. It Is Total... Because It May Well Involve The Whole World.
Peace
War
Community
Il N'y A Pas D'autre Univers Qu'un Univers Humain, L'univers De La Subjectivite Humaine. There Is No Other Universe Except The Human Universe, The Universe Of Human Subjectivity.
Subjectivity
Humans
Universe
In Wanting Freedom We Discover That It Depends Entirely On The Freedom Of Others, And That The Freedom Of Others Depends On Ours. . . I Am Obliged To Want Others To Have Freedom At The Same Time That I Want My Own Freedom. I Can Take Freedom As My Goal Only If I Take That Of Others As A Goal As Well.
Goal
Want
Wells
This Desire [to Write] Is Rather Strange All The Same And Is Not Without A Certain "cracked" Quality.
Writing
Desire
Quality
To Whomever Gives A Kiss Or A Blow Render A Kiss Or Blow But To Whomever Gives When You Are Unable To Return Offer All The Hatred In Your Heart For You Were Slaves And He Enslaves You
Heart
Kissing
Blow
From The Period When I Wrote La Nausea I Wanted To Create A Morality. My Evolution Consists In My No Longer Dreaming Of Doing So.
Dream
Nausea
Morality
Man Is Nothing Else But What He Makes Of Himself. [it Is A Matter Of Choice, Not Chance.] Such Is The First Principle Of Existentialism.
Men
Choices
Matter
The Individual's Duty Is To Do What He Wants To Do, To Think Whatever He Likes, To Be Accountable To No One But Himself, To Challenge Every Idea And Every Person.
Thinking
Ideas
Challenges
The World Would Get Along Very Well Without Literature. It Would Get Along Even Better Without Man.
Men
Literature
World
What Never Vary Are The Necessities Of Being In The World, Of Having To Labor And To Die There.
Life
World
Labor
Do You Think I Can Read [alain] Robbe-grillet In An Underdeveloped Country? He Does Not Feel Himself Maimed.
Country
Thinking
Doe
I Have Crossed The Seas, I Have Left Cities Behind Me, And I Have Followed The Source Of Rivers Towards Their Source Or Plunged Into Forests, Always Making For Other Cities. I Have Had Women, I Have Fought With Men ; And I Could Never Turn Back Any More Than A Record Can Spin In Reverse. And All That Was Leading Me Where ? To This Very Moment.
Men
Sea
Cities
If You Are Not Already Dead, Forgive. Rancor Is Heavy, It Is Worldly; Leave It On Earth: Die Light.
Light
Forgiving
Earth
Generally Speaking There Is No Irreducible Taste Or Inclination. They All Represent A Certain Appropriative Choice Of Being. It Is Up To Existential Psychoanalysis To Compare And Classify Them. Ontology Abandons Us Here; It Has Merely Enabled Us To Determine The Ultimate Ends Of Human Reality, Its Fundamental Possibilities, And The Value Which Haunts It.
Reality
Choices
Fundamentals
Why Do You Keep Maintaining Your Ideas Are Right If You Can't Prove Them?
Ideas
Maintaining
Prove
Nothing Happens While You Live. The Scenery Changes, People Come In And Go Out, That's All. There Are No Beginnings. Days Are Tacked On To Days Without Rhyme Or Reason, An Interminable, Monotonous Addition.
People
Nausea
Reason
Life Has No Meaning The Moment You Lose The Illusion Of Being Eternal.
Life
Existentialism
Moments
Ha! To Forget. How Childish! I Feel You In My Bones. Your Silence Screams In My Ears. You May Nail Your Mouth Shut, You May Cut Out Your Tongue, Can You Keep Yourself From Existing? Will You Stop Your Thoughts.
Cutting
Silence
Nails
The Plight Of Modern Man Is That He Is Condemmed To Be Free.
Men
Plight
Modern
The Public, Too, Has To Make An Effort In Order To Understand The Writer Who, Though He Renounce Complacent Obscurity, Cannot Always Express His New-hidden Thoughts Lucidly And According To Accepted Models.
Order
Effort
Obscurity
The [communist] Party Has One Objective: The Creation Of A Socialist Economy; And One Means: The Utilization Of The Class Struggle.
Party
Struggle
Mean
When One Does Nothing, One Believes Oneself Responsible For Everything.
Believe
Doe
Responsible
All-powerful God, Who Am I But The Fear That I Inspire In Others?
Powerful
Inspire
Powerful God
Absurd, Irreducible; Nothing--not Even A Profound And Secret Delirium Of Nature--could Explain [a Tree Root].
Nature
Roots
Profound
You See, The Contemporary Writer Must Write Through His Intimations Of Unease, While Trying To Elucidate Them.
Writing
Trying
Contemporary
What Is Boredom? It Is When There Is Simultaneously Too Much And Not Enough.
Boredom
Too Much
Enough
Smooth And Smiling Faces Everywhere, But Ruin In Their Eyes.
Eye
Ruins
Faces
I Should Wish [alain Robbe-grillet] To Realize That Guinea Exists.
Wish
Realizing
Guinea
For Common Minds Have An Ugly Ability To Perceive In The Deepest And Richest Saying Nothing But Their Own Everyday Opinion.
Mind
Everyday
Saying Nothing
Man Is Always Separated From What He Is By All The Breadth Of The Being Which He Is Not. He Makes Himself Known To Himself From The Other Side Of The World And He Looks From The Horizon Toward Himself To Recover His Inner Being.
Men
Horizon
Looks
There Is No Salvation Anywhere. The Idea Of Salvation Implies The Idea Of An Absolute.
Ideas
Salvation
Absolutes
Photographs Are Not Ideas. They Give Us Ideas.
Ideas
Giving
Photograph
There Is No Book Of Mine That I Reject. That Does Not Mean That I Find Them Good.
Book
Mean
Doe
If You Want To Deserve Hell, You Need Only Stay In Bed. The World Is Iniquity; If You Accept It, You Are An Accomplice, If You Change It You Are An Executioner.
World
Want
Bed
The Past Is The Luxury Of Proprietors.
Past
Luxury
[lost Of The Absolute] Is In This Sense That ''i No Longer Know What To Do With My Life" Must Be Understood. Critics Have Been Mistaken About The Meaning Of This Phrase, Seeing In It A Cry Of Despair As In Simone De Beauvoir's "i Have Been Cheated." When She Uses This Word It Is To Indicate That She Claims From Life An Absolute Which She Cannot Find There.
Despair
Phrases
Use
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.
Men
Doe
We Will Freedom For Freedom’s Sake, In And Through Particular Circumstances. And In Thus Willing Freedom, We Discover That It Depends Entirely Upon The Freedom Of Others And That The Freedom Of Others Depends Upon Our Own. Obviously, Freedom As The Definition Of A Man Does Not Depend Upon Others, But As Soon As There Is A Commitment, I Am Obliged To Will The Liberty Of Others At The Same Time As My Own. I Cannot Make Liberty My Aim Unless I Make That Of Others Equally My Aim.
Commitment
Liberty
Doe
In Guinea I Could Read [franz] Kafka. I Re-discover In Him My Own Discomfort.
Guinea
Discomfort
My Own
Atheism Is A Cruel Long Term Business, And I Have Gone Through It To The End.
Long
Atheism
Gone
First All Men Must Be Able To Become Men By The Improvement Of Their Conditions Of Existence, So That A Universal Morality Can Be Created. If I Begin By Saying To Them: "thou Shalt Not Lie," There Is No Longer Any Possibility Of Political Action. What Matters First Is The Liberation Of Man.
Lying
Men
What Matters
Man Must Be Invented Each Day
Inspiration
Men
Each Day
If You Die, I Will Lie Down Beside You And I Will Stay There Until The End, Without Eating Or Drinking, You Will Rot In My Arms And I Will Love You As Carcass: For You Love Nothing If You Do Not Love Everything.
Life
Lying
Drinking
What Do We Mean By Saying That Existence Precedes Essence? We Mean That Man First Of All Exists, Encounters Himself, Surges Up In The World-and Defines Himself Afterward.
Mean
Men
Essence
Life Begins On The Other Side Of Despair.
Inspirational
Life
Philosophical
[contemporary Writer] Could Be A Kind Of [samuel] Beckett Who Would Not Be Felt To Be Totally Committed To Despair.
Despair
Kind
Beckett
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.
Men
Purpose
Action
[andre] Gide Can Say It To Me: It Is A Writer's Morality Only Addressed To A Few Privileged People. For That Reason It No Longer Interests Me.
People
Morality
Reason
I Know Only One Church: It Is The Society Of Men.
Men
Church
Knows
Your Judgement Judges You And Defines You
Judging
Judgement
Define You
Death Is A Continuation Of My Life Without Me.
Death
Existentialism
Continuation
Ideas Come In Pairs And They Contradict One Another; Their Opposition Is The Principal Engine Of Reflection.
Reflection
Ideas
Pairs
A Pale Reflection Of Myself Wavers In My Consciousness...and Suddenly The “i” Pales, Pales, And Fades Out.
Reflection
Consciousness
Pale
Good Digestions, The Gray Monotony Of Provincial Life, And The Boredom-ah The Soul-destroying Boredom-of Long Days Of Mild Content.
Bored
Long
Soul
As Far As Men Go, It Is Not What They Are That Interests Me, But What They Can Become.
Teacher
Teaching
Philosophical
I Respect Orders But I Respect Myself Too And I Do Not Obey Foolish Rules Made Especially To Humiliate Me.
Order
Foolish
Made
Existence Is An Imperfection.
Imperfection
Existence
I Will Take It All: Tongs, Molten Lead, Prongs, Garrotes, All That Burns, All That Tears, I Want To Truly Suffer. Better One Hundred Bites, Better The Whip, Vitriol, Than This Suffering In The Head, This Ghost Of Suffering Which Grazes And Caresses And Never Hurts Enough.
Hurt
Suffering
Tears
Perhaps Its Inevitable, Perhaps One Has To Choose Between Being Nothing At All And Impersonating What One Is.
Inevitable
I Don't Know. Everything. Living. Smoking.
Smoking
Knows
Like All Dreamers, I Mistook Disenchantment For Truth.
Dream
Art
Truth
I Felt Myself In A Solitude So Frightful That I Contemplated Suicide. What Held Me Back Was The Idea That No One, Absolutely No One, Would Be Moved By My Death, That I Would Be Even More Alone In Death Than In Life.
Suicide
Ideas
Solitude
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.
Responsibility
Views
Doubt
I Tell You In Truth: All Men Are Prophets Or Else God Does Not Exist.
Men
Nausea
Doe
He Loves Me, He Doesn't Love My Bowels, If They Showed Him My Appendix In A Glass He Wouldn't Recognize It, He's Always Feeling Me, But If They Put The Glass In His Hands He Wouldn't Touch It, He Wouldn't Think, "that's Hers," You Ought To Love All Of Somebody, The Esophagus, The Liver, The Intestines. Maybe We Don't Love Them Because We Aren't Used To Them, But If We Saw Them The Way We Saw Our Hands And Arms Maybe We'd Love Them; The Starfish Must Love Each Other Better Than We Do.
Thinking
Glasses
Hands
Take [stéphane] Mallarme. I Hold Him To Be The Greatest Of French Poets, And I Have Taken Some Time To Understand Him !
Taken
Poet
The Viable Jewels Of Life Remain Untouched When Man Forgets His Vocation Of Searching For The Truth Of His Existence.
Men
Jewels
Forget
What The Painter Adds To The Canvas Are The Days Of His Life. The Adventure Of Living, Hurtling Toward Death.
Adventure
Add
Canvas
A Lost Battle Is A Battle One Thinks One Has Lost.
Failure
Thinking
Battle
In Love, One And One Are One.
Love
Inspirational
Undone
If A Jew Is Fascinated By Christians It Is Not Because Of Their Virtues, Which He Values Little, But Because They Represent Anonymity, Humanity Without Race.
Christian
Race
Humanity
When One Loves Animals And Children Too Much, One Loves Them Against Human Beings.
Children
Animal
Too Much
Man Is Condemned To Be Free
Freedom
Philosophy
Philosophical
One Does Not Adopt A New Idea, One Slips Into It.
Ideas
Doe
New Ideas
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