If a victory is told in detail, one can no longer distinguish it from a defeat.
Jean-Paul SartreRead
I confused things with their names: that is belief.
Interpretation
Belief often stems from a misunderstanding of concepts and their true nature.
In this quote, Sartre suggests that our beliefs are sometimes based on the superficial labels or names we assign to things, rather than a deeper understanding of their essence. This implies that confusion arises when we equate names with the actual reality they represent, urging us to look beyond surface-level definitions to grasp the true nature of our beliefs and experiences.
In practice
In a philosophical debate, one might quote Sartre to illustrate how misconceptions can shape our beliefs.
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.
In all of us, even in good men, there is a lawless wild-beast nature, which peers out in sleep.
The glory of Christianity is to conquer by forgiveness. It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.
Civilisation is partly about restraining the male of the species from engaging in the violence of the hunter-gatherer period. But it doesn't take an awful lot to unleash it.
It is to the last degree distressing to contemplate the state and establishment of our navy... unless the private emolument of individuals in our navy is made superior to that in privateers, it never can become respectable; it never will become formidable. And without a respectable navy - alas, America!
The religious persecution of the ages has been done under what was claimed to be the command of God.
The hand descended. Nearer and nearer it came. It touched the ends of his upstanding hair. He shrank down under it. It followed down after him, pressing more closely against him. Shrinking, almost shivering. He still managed to hold himself together. It was a torment, this hand that touched him and violated his instinct. He could not forget in a day all the evil that had been wrought him at the hands of men.
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