If a victory is told in detail, one can no longer distinguish it from a defeat.
Jean-Paul SartreRead
All I want is' - and he uttered the final words through clenched teeth and with a sort of shame - 'to retain my freedom.' I should myself have thought,' said Jacques, 'that freedom consisted in frankly confronting situations into which one had deliberately entered, and accepting all one's responsibilities. But that, no doubt, is not your view.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of freedom and the responsibility that comes with it.
In this quote by Jean-Paul Sartre, the speaker grapples with the concept of freedom, suggesting that true freedom involves facing the situations one has chosen and the responsibilities that accompany those choices. The tension arises when the desire to maintain freedom clashes with the need to confront reality and own one's actions, highlighting a philosophical debate on the nature of human existence and autonomy.
Themes
FreedomResponsibilityPhilosophyChoicesExistence
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about personal accountability, one might use this quote to illustrate the importance of facing the consequences of one's choices.
More from Jean-Paul Sartre
All quotes →If you are lonely when you're alone, you are in bad company.
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A kiss without a moustache, they said then, is like an egg without salt; I will add to it: and it is like Good without Evil.
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I wanted pure love: foolishness; to love one another is to hate a common enemy: I will thus espouse your hatred. I wanted Good: nonsense; on this earth and in these times, Good and Bad are inseparable: I accept to be evil in order to become good.
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Night is falling: at dusk, you must have good eyesight to be able to tell the Good Lord from the Devil.
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Every age has its own poetry; in every age the circumstances of history choose a nation, a race, a class to take up the torch by creating situations that can be expressed or transcended only through poetry.
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