Existence precedes and rules essence.

Jean-Paul Sartre · The source reads: “L'existence prècéde et commande l'essence. Existence precedes and rules essence.”

It's quite a job starting to love somebody. You have to have energy, generosity, blindness.

Jean-Paul Sartre · Roquentin in the novel that made Sartre's name; the sentence goes on that there is a moment at the start when you have to jump across a precipice.

Human life begins on the far side of despair.

Jean-Paul Sartre · The source reads: “La vie humaine commence de l'autre côtè du dèsespoir. Human life begins on the far side of despair.”

I am condemned to be free.

Jean-Paul Sartre · The source reads: “Je suis condemnè á être libre. I am condemned to be free.”

More Philosophy Quotes

Expert knowledge, however indispensable, is no substitute for a generous and comprehending outlook upon the human story with all its sadness, with all its unquenchable hope.

Winston Churchill · Churchill at the University of Copenhagen in 1950, on what education is for.

I feel as if my being were dissolved and the idea of you were diffused throughout it.

Nathaniel Hawthorne · Hawthorne to his fiancée Sophia Peabody from Salem, May 26, 1839, during their long engagement.

Metaphysics is the finding of bad reasons for what we believe upon instinct; but to find these reasons is no less an instinct.

F. H. Bradley

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“Existence precedes and rules essence.”

“It's quite a job starting to love somebody. You have to have energy, generosity, blindness.”

“Human life begins on the far side of despair.”

“I am condemned to be free.”

“Expert knowledge, however indispensable, is no substitute for a generous and comprehending outlook upon the human story with all its sadness, with all its unquenchable hope.”

“I feel as if my being were dissolved and the idea of you were diffused throughout it.”

“Metaphysics is the finding of bad reasons for what we believe upon instinct; but to find these reasons is no less an instinct.”