Inspirational Quotations by Jean-Paul Sartre (French Philosopher)

Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (1905–80) was a French philosopher, novelist, playwright, and critic. The principal exponent of existentialism, his work dealt with the nature of human life and the structures of consciousness. He ranks as the most versatile writer and as a towering influence on three decades of French intellectual life.

Born in Paris, Sartre was a first cousin to Albert Schweitzer. Sartre entered the École Normale Supérieure in 1924, where he met the novelist Simone de Beauvoir. She became his lifetime romantic and intellectual companion.

After finishing mandatory military service, Sartre took a teaching job in Le Havre and wrote his first novel, La Nausée (1938; Nausea.) Judged by some the century’s most influential French novel, La Nausée depicts man adrift in a godless universe, hostage to his own angst-ridden freedom.

Sartre was one of the French intellectuals who openly resisted Nazi occupation of France. He spent a year as a prisoner of war during World War II. After this, he wrote his first major work in philosophy, L’êtreet le Néant (1943; Being and Nothingness: An Essay in Phenomenological Ontology.)

Sartre’s philosophy of existentialism (i.e. each person is responsible for his own actions and their consequences) is rooted in his dramatic works. He turned to playwriting and produced a series of theatrical successes which are essentially dramatizations of his philosophical ideas: Les mains sales (1948; Dirty Hands,) Le diable et le bon dieu (1957; The Devil and the Good Lord,) and Les Séquestrés d’Altona (1959; The Condemned of Altona.)

Sartre also wrote the comedies La putain respectueuse (1946; The Respectful Prostitute,) Kean (1954,) and Nekrassov (1955) and the three-volume novel, Les Chemins de la Liberté (1945–49; The Roads to Freedom.) In 1960, Sartre returned to philosophy, publishing the first volume of his Critique de la raison dialectique (1960; Critique of Dialectical Reason,) an amendment of his existentialism through Marxist ideas.

Sartre also wrote major studies of literary figures and many essays. He was awarded and rejected the 1964 Nobel Prize for Literature. When he died in 1980, some 50,000 people turned out on the streets of Paris to pay their respects.

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