Jean-Paul Sartre — Quote from Being and Nothingness
“We do not know what we want and yet we are responsible for what we are — that is the fact.”
Being and Nothingness (1943)
Concepts: freedom, loneliness, authenticity
Resonant Quotes
- “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.” — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex Both existentialist insights reveal how we bear responsibility for identities we neither chose nor fully understand, ...
- “Anxiety is not something we have but something we are. It is our state of bei...” — Rollo May, The Meaning of Anxiety Both existential psychologist and philosopher identify the vertigo-inducing weight of radical freedom and responsibil...
- “To go wrong in one's own way is better than to go right in someone else's.” — Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment Both quotes champion radical individual responsibility and authentic choice-making, with Sartre's existential burden ...
- “The quest for certainty blocks the search for meaning. Uncertainty is the ver...” — Erich Fromm, Man for Himself Both existentialists locate authentic human existence in the radical uncertainty of our condition, where the absence ...
- “Welcome, O life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of expe...” — James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Both confront the paradox of human agency—Joyce's embrace of experience mirrors Sartre's insight that we must create ...
- “I am awfully greedy; I want everything from life. I want to be a woman and to...” — Simone de Beauvoir, The Prime of Life De Beauvoir's greedy wanting of contradictory experiences exemplifies Sartre's existentialist insight that we are res...
- “Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.” — Søren Kierkegaard, The Concept of Anxiety Sartre's paradox of unknowing responsibility directly explicates why freedom produces Kierkegaard's dizzying anxiety ...
- “The biggest danger, that of losing oneself, can pass off in the world as quie...” — Søren Kierkegaard, The Sickness Unto Death Both capture the paradox of existential responsibility—Kierkegaard's unnoticed self-loss and Sartre's unknowing respo...