Jean-Paul Sartre

“Pour que l'événement le plus banal devienne une aventure, il faut et il suffit qu'on se mette à le raconter.”

“Nous sommes seuls, sans excuses. C’est ce que j’exprimerais en disant que l’homme est condamné à être libre. Condamné, parce qu’il ne s’est pas créé lui-même, et par ailleurs cependant libre, parce qu’une fois jeté dans le monde, il est responsable de tout ce qu’il fait. […] L’homme, sans aucun secours, est condamné à chaque instant à inventer l’homme.”

“I never could bear the idea of anyone's expecting something from me. Italways made me want to do just the opposite.”

“For a hundred dead stories there still remain one or two living ones. I evoke these with caution, occasionally, not too often, for fear of wearing them out, I fish one out, again I see the scenery, the characters, the attitudes. I stop suddenly: there is a flaw, I have seen a word pierce through the web of sensations. I suppose that this word will soon take the place of several images I love. I must stop quickly and think of something else; I don't want to tire my memories. In vain; the next time I evoke them a good part will be congealed.”

“I see the future. It is there, poised over the street, hardly more dim than the present. What advantage will accrue from its realisation? The old woman stumps further and further away, she stops, pulls at a grey lock of hair which escapes from her handkerchief. She walks, she was there, now she is here... I don't know where I am any more: do i see her motions, or do I foresee them? I can no longer distinguish present from future and yet it lasts, it happens little by little; the old woman advances in the deserted street, shuffling her heavy, mannish brogues. This is time, time laid bare, coming slowly into existence, keeping us waiting, and when it does come making us sick because we realise it's been there for a long time. The old woman reaches the corner of the street, no more than a bundle of black clothes. All right then, it's new, she wasn't there a little while ago. But it's a tarnished deflowered newness, which can never surprise. She is going to turn the corner, she turns - during an eternity.”

“General ideas are more flattering. And then professionals and even amateurs always end up by being right”

“Amuse yourself, torment your desires. Drink when you're thirsty -- that would be very much too simple! If you didn't harbour a temptation eternally in your soul, you'd run the risk of forgetting yourself.”

“Aujourd'hui encore, je ne puis voir sans plaisir un enfant trop sérieux parler gravement, tendrement à sa mère enfant; j'aime ces douces amitiés sauvages qui naissent loin des hommes et contre eux.Je regarde longuement ces couples puérils et puis je me rappelle que je suis un homme et je détourne la tête.”

“Moi, je ne tiens pas les rancunes et j'avoue tout, complaisamment : pour l'autocritique, je suis doué, à la condition qu'on ne prétende pas me l'imposer.”

“J'étais un enfant, ce monstre qu'ils fabriquent avec leurs regrets.”

“J'avais deux raisons de respecter mon instituteur : il me voulait du bien, il avait l'haleine forte.Les grandes personnes doivent être laides, ridées, incommodes; quand elles me prenaient dans leurs bras, il ne me déplaisait pas d'avoir un léger dégoût à surmonter : c'était la preuve que la vertu n'était pas facile. Il y avait des joies simples, triviales : courir, sauter, manger des gâteaux, embrasser la peau douce et parfumée de ma mère; mais j'attachais plus de prix aux plaisirs studieux et mêlés que j'éprouvais dans la compagnie des hommes mûrs : la répulsion qu'ils m'inspiraient faisait partie de leur prestige ; je confondais le dégoût avec l'esprit de sérieux. J'étais snob.”

“Je n'ai jamais gratté la terre ni quêté des nids, je n'ai pas herborisé ni lancé des pierres aux oiseaux. Mais les livres ont été mes oiseaux et mes nids, mes bêtes domestiques, mon étable et ma campagne.”

“J'ai commencé ma vie comme je la finirai sans doute : au milieu des livres.”

“You talk a lot about this amazing flow of time but you hardly see it. you see a women, you think that one day she'll be old, only you don't see her grow old. But there are moments when you think you see her grow old and feel yourself growing old with her: this is the feeling of adventure.”

“I glance around the room. What a comedy! All these people sitting there, looking serious, eating. No, they aren't eating: they are recuperating in order to successfully finish their tasks. Each one of them has his little personal difficulty which keeps him from noticing that he exists; there isn't one of them who doesn't believe himself indispensable to something or someone. Didn't the Self-Taught Man tell me the other day: "No one better qualified than Noucapie to undertake this vast synthesis?" Each one of them does one small thing and no one is better qualified than he to do it. No one is better qualified than the commercial traveler over there to sell Swan Toothpaste. No one better qualified than that interesting young man to put his hand under his girl friend's skirts. And I am among them and if they look at me they must think that no one is better qualified than I to do what I'm doing. But I know. I don't look like much, but I know I exist and that they exist. And if I knew how to convince people I'd go and sit down next to that handsome white-haired gentleman and explain to him just what existence means. I burst out laughing at the thought of the face he would make. The Self-Taught Man looks at me with surprise. I'd like to stop but I can't; I laugh until I cry.”

“Impossibile, si è creature nate sotto il cielo, ecco il male.”

“Gesti, gesti, piccole distruzioni, che cosa significano, io ho creduto che questa fosse la libertà.”

“Nothingness haunts Being.”

“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.”

“Il y a quelque chose de coincé dans le mécanisme”

“I live in the past. I take everything that has happened to me and arrange it. From a distance like that, it doesn't do any harm, you'd almost let yourself be caught in it. Our whole story is fairly beautiful. I give it a few prods and it makes a whole string of perfect moments. Then I close my eyes and try to imagine that I'm still living inside it.”

“I am free,’ he said suddenly. And his joy changed, on the spot, to a crushing sense of anguish.”

“Poetry creates the myth, the prose writer draws its portrait.”

“por definición, la existencia no es la necesidad. Existir es estar ahí, simplemente; los existentes aparecen.”

“Pero en el seno mismo de ese éxtasis, acababa de aparecer algo nuevo: yo comprendía la Náusea, la poesía.”

“Veo el porvenir. Está allí, en la calle, apenas más pálido que elpresente. ¿Qué necesidad tiene de realizarse?¿Qué ganará conello?”

“Y se acerca el día en el que se dirá, cerrando el último volumendel último estante del extremo izquierdo: “¿y ahora?”

“I have no taste for work any longer, I can do nothing more except wait for night.530: Things are bad! Things are very bad: I have it, the filth, the Nausea.”

“El peligro de llevar un diario es que se exagera todo, uno esta al acecho, forzando continuamente la verdad”

“Es el reflejo de mi rostro. A menudo en estos días perdidos, me quedo contemplándolo. No comprendo nada de este rostro. Los de los demás tienen un sentido. El mío, no.”

“Soy feliz; este frío es tan puro, tan pura la noche; ¿no soy yo mismo una onda de aire helado? No tener ni sangre, ni linfa, ni carne. Deslizarse por este largo canal hacia aquella palidez. Ser sólo frío.”

“Estoy solo en medio de estas voces alegres y razonables. Todos estos tipos se pasan el tiempo explicándose, reconociendo con felicidad que comparten las mismas opiniones. ¡Qué importancia conceden, Dios mío, al hecho de pensar todos juntos las mismas cosas!.”

“La mayor parte del tiempo, al no unirse a palabras, mis pensamientos quedan en la niebla. Dibujan formas claras y agradables, se disipan; en seguida las olvido.”

“The recruit who reports for active duty at the beginning of the war can in some instances be afraid of death, but more often he is 'afraid of being afraid'; that is, he is filled with anguish before himself.”

“L’homme sensible moderne » ne souffre pas pour tel ou tel motif particulier, mais, en général, parce que rien de cette terre ne saurait contenter ses désirs.”

“Možda će i biti ljepših vremena, ali ovo je naše.”

“Een mens engageert zich in zijn leven, krijgt daarin gestalte en buiten die gestalte is er niets. Voor iemand die in zijn leven niet geslaagd is, moet dat natuurlijk een harde gedachte zijn. Maar anderzijds stelt ze de mensen in staat te begrijpen dat alleen de werkelijkheid telt, dat dromen, afwachten en hopen een mens tot niet meer dan een teleurgestelde droom, een vervlogen hoop, een vergeefse verwachting maken.”

“The writer, a free man adressing free men, has only one subject - freedom”

“Cand albii vorbesc intre ei fara sa se cunoasca, inseamna ca pe un negru il pandeste moartea.”

“We are in hell, my dear, there is never a mistake and people are not damned for nothing.”

“Presupun că numai din lene lumea e aceeaşi de la o zi la alta.”

“I want no secrets or soul-states, nothing ineffable; I am neithervirgin nor priest enough to play with the inner life.”

“We only become what we are by the radical and deep-seated refusal of that which others have made of us.”

“Cand aveam 20 de ani mă îmbătam şi pe urmă explicam că sunt un tip în genul lui Descartes. Simţeam că mă umflu de eroism, îmi dădeam frîu liber, îmi plăcea. După care, a doua zi, eram la fel de scîrbit ca şi cînd m-aş fi trezit într-un pat plin de vărsături. Ieri n-aveam nici măcar scuza beţiei. M-am exaltat ca un imbecil. Am nevoie să mă curăţ cu gînduri abstracte, transparente ca apa.”

“Lecturile Autodidactului mă pun în încurcătură întotdeauna. Brusc, îmi revin în minte numele ultimilor autori pe care i-a consultat: Lambert, Langlois, Larbaletrier, Lastex, Lavergne. Dintr-o străfulgerare am înţeles metoda Autodidactului: se instruieşte în ordine alfabetică. Il contemplu cu un fel de admiraţie. Cîtă voinţă îi trebuie ca să realizeze încetul cu încetul, cu încăpăţînare, un proiect atît de vast? Într-o zi, acum şapte ani (mi-a mărturisit că studiază de şapte ani) a intrat cu mare pompă în această sală. A parcurs cu privirea nenumăratele cărţi care acoperă pereţii şi probabil a spus, asemenea lui Rastignac: «Intre noi doi acum, Cunoaştere omenească!» S-a dus apoi să ia prima carte din primul raft de la extrema dreaptă; a deschis-o la prima pagină cu un sentiment de respect şi de teamă, însoţit cu o hotărîre de neclintit. Astăzi se află la L. A trecut deodată de la studiul coleopterelor la cel al teoriei cuantelor. A citit tot; a înmagazinat în capul lui jumătate din ce se ştie despre partenogeneză, jumătate din argumentele împotriva vivisecţiei. În urma lui, înaintea lui, e un univers. Şi se apropie ziua cînd va spune, închizînd ultimul volum din ultimul raft de la extrema stîngă: «Şi acum?»”

“Nu-mi simt trupul, m-a cucerit puritatea lucrurilor care mă înconjoară; nimic nu e viu; vântul suflă, linii drepte aleargă în noapte.”

“E ora şapte şi jumătate, nu mi-e foame şi filmul începe abia la nouă; ce-aş putea face? Trebuie să merg repede, ca să mă încălzesc. Ezit: în spatele meu bulevardul duce în inima oraşului, către podoabele de foc ale străzilor centrale, la Palatul Paramount, la Imperial, la Marile Magazine Jahan. Nu mă atrage deloc: e ora aperitivului; fiinţele, cânii, oamenii, toate aceste mase moi care se mlşcă spontan, le-am văzut destul pentru moment.”

“I had been born in order to fillthe great need I had of myself.”

“Var olmak susamadan içmek gibi bir şeydir.”

“You believe that you believe, but you don’t believe.”