If a victory is told in detail, one can no longer distinguish it from a defeat.
Jean-Paul SartreRead
Life begins on the other side of despair.
Interpretation
Despair can be a transformative experience that leads to new beginnings.
This quote by Jean-Paul Sartre suggests that true living and growth often occur after overcoming deep despair. It highlights the idea that experiencing hardship can unlock new opportunities and perspectives, leading to a more fulfilling life. Despair, while painful, is portrayed as a threshold that, when crossed, allows individuals to begin anew with greater understanding and resilience.
In practice
This quote can be included in a speech about overcoming hardships.
If a victory is told in detail, one can no longer distinguish it from a defeat.
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.
If you are lonely when you're alone, you are in bad company.
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.
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.
Night is falling: at dusk, you must have good eyesight to be able to tell the Good Lord from the Devil.
Time is not an empirical concept. For neither co-existence nor succession would be perceived by us, if the representation of time did not exist as a foundation a priori.
The instant formal government is abolished, society begins to act. A general association takes place, and common interest produces common security.
Once we are self-aware, we must choose purposes and principles to live by; otherwise the vacuum will be filled, and we will lose our self-awareness and become like groveling animals who live primarily for survival and propagation. People who exist on that level aren't living; they are "being lived".
Make sure that your religion is a matter between you and God only.
When we have become free, we need not go mad and throw up society and rush off to die in the forest or the cave; we shall remain where we were but we shall understand the whole thing. The same phenomena will remain but with a new meaning.
The living owe it to those who no longer can speak to tell their story for them.
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