Nausea

by Jean-Paul Sartre

at that moment I stopped, dropped the stone and left. Probably I looked somewhat foolish or absent-minded, because the children laughed behind my back. So much for external things. What

I think I’m the one who has changed: that’s the simplest solution.

when this man is lonely he sleeps.

Oh you know that's right

I live alone, entirely alone. I never speak to anyone, never; I receive nothing, I give nothing. The

When she is alone in the rooms I hear her humming to keep herself from thinking. But

I know in advance the day is lost.

When the sun begins shining like that the best thing to do is go to bed. Only

But time is too large, it can’t be filled up.

I have had real adventures.

I see an old lady fearfully leaving the gallery of arcades, looking slyly and obstinately

There is a universe behind and before him.

What astonishes me is to feel so sad and exhausted.

I have known great moments, I have had adventures. Now

But an adventure never returns nor is prolonged.

But you have to choose: live or tell. For

For a moment I wondered if I were not going to love humanity. But, after all, it was their Sunday, not mine.

How I love to read my name on envelopes.

Where shall I keep mine? You don’t put your past in your pocket; you have to have a house. I have only my body: a man entirely alone, with his lonely body, cannot indulge in memories; they pass through him. I shouldn’t complain: all I wanted was to be free.

When you want to understand something you stand in front of it, alone, without help: all the past in the world is of no use.

I walk at random, calm and empty, under this wasted sky.

Another day wasted.

I suppose it is out of laziness that the world is the same day after day. Today

My existence began to worry me seriously. Was I not a simple spectre? “Hey!”

This unpretentious wise man put people at their ease immediately. If

we have so much difficulty imagining nothingness.

“My titties, my lovely fruits,”

“You see, I’m getting fat, I’m getting old. I have to take care of myself.”

You complain because things don’t arrange themselves around you like a bouquet of flowers, without your taking the slightest trouble to do anything.

And besides, for what people are worth, the first good-looking boy that comes along is worth as much as you.”

Will I gain anything by the change?

It is still a city: this one happens to be cut in two by a river, the other one is by the sea, yet they look alike. One

But what difference does it make? What could I tell her? My body slowly turns eastward, oscillates a little and begins to walk.

understand: the city is the first one to abandon me.

I feel more forgotten than ever.

They come and go, they seem to say: You must be like us, suffer in rhythm. All