Jean-Paul Sartre is a famous French philosopher, writer and essayist. The central concept of the philosophical concept he created was freedom, which Sartre presented as something given to man once and for all even before the final formation of his essence.
The best literary work of Jean-Paul Sartre is considered his debut novel "Nausea", released in 1938. This work raises topics such as chaos, fate and the absurdity of human life. In addition, the novel touches on the meaning of freedom.
Sartre's quotes from Nausea, as well as philosophical statements from other novels and philosophical works, became famous aphorisms. In 1964, the writer was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature, but refused it on his own convictions.
Sartre's quotes about freedom
I am my own freedom.
The French philosopher does not perceive this concept as freedom allowing inaction, but rather as a choice that no one can take away. For example, a prisoner always has the freedom to make one of two decisions: put up with his imprisonment or try to free himself. What this or that will lead to depends on further circumstances.
Man is doomed to freedom.
Paul Sartre's ideas and quotes are largely ambiguous and are often contested by critics and other writers. However, it cannot be denied that this philosopher is one of the few figures who examined in detail the complex multifaceted theme of freedom in his work and tried to give it a clear scientific definition.
Life before we live it is nothing, but its meaning depends on you.
This quote from Sartre shows his attitude to the world around him. The writer believes that it is a person who gives value to inanimate objects through his activity. Giving them a certain meaning and significance, people shape themselves as individuals and create their own individuality.
Jean-Paul Sartre about God
Sartre is known as a representative of atheistic existentialism. Atheism is a complete denial of the existence of any gods, and existentialism is a philosophical trend, the main theme of which is human nature. There is only one way to understand existential truth - you need to live as an individual, a separate person.
Man projects himself and is doomed to freedom and responsibility, which he can no longer transfer to God.
This quote from Sartre explains the whole essence of this trend: a god or some other mysterious “creator” cannot define a human being. After all, people live their own lives, only they are responsible for the experience they acquired.
A person has a hole the size of a god in his soul, and everyone fills it as best he can.
Jean-Paul Sartre denies the existence of a “creator" and its justice.
We will win the right to love with blood.
Sartre was not only a writer and philosopher, but also a playwright. He has authored seven plays. This statement is from the work “The Devil and Lord God,” created in 1951. Heroes are looking for the answer to such eternal questions as what is good and evil, what is freedom and what it consists of.
About loneliness
The philosopher believed that the concepts of loneliness and alienation are inextricably linked with the theme of freedom. It is these issues that are addressed in his most famous novel, Nausea. The title of the work was not just chosen: nausea is what material objects cause in an alienated person.
Such a person is the main character of the novel by Jean-Paul Sartre - Antoine Rocantin.
People. People must be loved. People are admirable. Now I will vomit inside out.
The character rarely communicates with others and can not speak out about his worries to anyone. However, Antoine does not try to find a suitable society, but, on the contrary, avoids it. In this quote from Sartre from the novel, the entire attitude of the protagonist to people is expressed.
When you live alone, you generally forget what it means to tell: believable stories disappear with friends.
Freedom does not become a blessing for Antoine, but a severe punishment. But when he goes to the town square and watches a crowd of people hurrying about their business, he looks at her with rather pity.
My memories are like gold in a purse donated by the devil: you open it, and there are dry leaves.
Not only the present, but also the past does not accept Antoine. Despite the memory rich in memories of various travels, the past for him died and was destroyed.
Other people about Sartre
I always explained his enthusiasm with the desire to stay in the first line. He was terribly afraid that the story might spit him out, that he might lose the audience, because the young ones would go in another direction.
This quote is the words about Sartre belonging to the Polish writer and philosopher Stanislav Lem from a series of interviews by Stanislav Beres. The phrase sounds in the chapter “Narrative Passion”.
In a later supplemented version of the book, entitled "So said ... Lem," you can also find a mention of Jean-Paul Sartre.
Look, today nothing is left of his legacy, absolutely.
Russian post-modern writer Viktor Pelevin in his satirical short story “A Short History of Paintball in Moscow”, published in 1997, analyzes the statement of the French philosopher “Hell is Others” (in French, Sartre’s quote sounds like L'enfer, c'est les autres) .