Jean-Paul Sartre Quotes

I am what time, circumstance, history, have made of me, certainly, but I am also, much more than that. So are we all.

The family is the test of freedom; because the family is the only thing that the free man makes for himself and by himself.

I am not God, but I am my creator.

A man, as a general rule, owes very little to what he is born with - a man is what he makes of himself.

Humanism is the creed of those who believe that in the circle of enwrapping mystery, men's fates are in their own hands—a faith that for modern man is becoming the only possible faith.

The essence of freedom is that each of us shares in the shaping of his own destiny.

Unless a man has talents to make something of himself, freedom is an irksome burden. Of what avail is freedom to choose if the self be ineffectual?

Man must assume responsibility for the direction of his life and destiny.

The challenge of modern freedom, or the combination of isolation and freedom which confronts you, is to make yourself up. The danger is that you may emerge from the process as a not-entirely-human creature. (Referenced in How to Lose Friends and Alienate People by Toby Young)

Man can acquire accomplishments or he can become an animal, whichever he wants. God makes the animals, man makes himself.

Freedon succeeds from the moment people stop looking to others to improve their lives and start taking responsibility.

Man must not only make himself: the weightiest thing he has to do is to determine what he is going to be. He is causa sui to the second power.

[M]an is condemned to be free. Condemned, because he did not create himself, in other respect is free; because, once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does. The Existentialist does not believe in the power of passion. He will never agree that a sweeping passion is a ravaging torrent which fatally leads a man to certain acts and is therefore an excuse. He thinks that man is responsible for his passion.

We all create the person we become by our choices as we go through life. In a real sense, by the time we are adults, we are the sum total of the choices we have made.

The final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands.

The way I look at it, I'd rather make my own mistakes than have people make them for me.

Whoever will be free must make himself free. Freedom is no fairy gift to fall into a man's lap. What is freedom? To have the will to be responsible for one's self.

In the end, I want to be able to say, 'My life was what I made it.'

Everybody eventually discovers that they are an individual with the power to affect their own lives and make it better or not.

You will not make a man wiser by taking freedom of action from him. A man can only learn when he is free to act.

I think I'm mostly looking forward to the college life. I'm looking forward to more freedom. Here everything is really structured and scheduled, but in college you've got to be more responsible and you can get things done on your own time. I'm really looking forward to that.

On some level, we as human beings can be who we want to be.

Freedom, morality, and the human dignity of the individual consists precisely in this; that he does good not because he is forced to do so, but because he freely conceives it, wants it, and loves it.

Freedom is man's capacity to take a hand in his own development. It is our capacity to mold ourselves.

Only our individual faith in freedom can keep us free.