The Age of Reason Quotes

“She smiled and said with an ecstatic air: "It shines like a little diamond",
"What does?"
"This moment. It is round, it hangs in empty space like a little diamond; I am eternal.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, The Age of Reason

“The individual's duty is to do what he wants to do, to think whatever he likes, to be accountable to no one but himself, to challenge every idea and every person.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, The Age of Reason

“Perhaps its inevitable, perhaps one has to choose between being nothing at all and impersonating what one is.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, The Age of Reason

“I've lived the life of a man without teeth, he thought about it. A life of a man without teeth. I've never bitten, I've been waiting, keeping myself for later - and now I've just ascertained that I don't have teeth anymore.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, The Age of Reason

“He walked on in silence, the solitary sound of his footsteps echoing in his head, as in a deserted street, at dawn. His solitude was so complete, beneath a lovely sky as mellow and serene as a good conscience, amid that busy throng, that he was amazed at his own existence; he must be somebody else's nightmare, and whoever it was would certainly awaken soon.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, The Age of Reason

“It's just what people do when they're getting old, when they're sick of themselves and their life; they think of money and take care of themselves.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, The Age of Reason

“If I didn't try to assume responsibility for my own existence, it would seem utterly absurd to go on existing.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, The Age of Reason

“He yawned; he had finished the day, and he had also finished with his youth. Various tried and proved rules of conduct had already discreetly offered him their services: disillusioned epicureanism, smiling tolerance, resignation, flat seriousness, stoicism--all the aids whereby a man may savor, minute by minute, like a connoisseur, the failure of a life... 'I have attained the age of reason.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, The Age of Reason

“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.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, The Age of Reason

“Perhaps it’s inevitable; perhaps one has to choose between being nothing at all, or impersonating what one is. That would be terrible,’ he said to himself: ‘it would mean that we were duped by nature.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, The Age of Reason

“But no: he was empty, he was confronted by a vast anger, a desperate anger, he saw it and could almost have touched it. But it was inert - if it were to live and find expression and suffer, he must lend it his own body. It was other people's anger. "Swine!" He clenched his fists, he strode along, but nothing came, the anger remained external to himself.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, The Age of Reason

“I have led a toothless life, he thought. A toothless life. I have never bitten into anything. I was waiting. I was reserving myself for later on—and I have just noticed that my teeth have gone.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, The Age of Reason

“With older people, it's quite different. They're reliable, they show you what to do, and there's solidity in their affection.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, The Age of Reason

“But you looked much more like a fellow who had just realised that he has been living on ideas that don’t pay.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, The Age of Reason

“Oppressed with countless little daily cares, he had waited... For an act. A free, considered act; that should pledge his whole life, and stand at the beginning of a new existence.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, The Age of Reason

“I go, I go away, I walk, I wander, and everywhere I go I bear my shell with me, I remain at home in my room, among my books, I do not approach an inch nearer to Marrakech or Timbuktu. Even if I took a train, a boat, or a motor-bus, if I went to Morocco for my holiday, if I suddenly arrived at Marrakech, I should be always in my room, at home. And if I walked in the squares and in the sooks, if I gripped an Arab's shoulder, to feel Marrakech in his person - well, that Arab would be at Marrakech, not I : I should still be seated in my room, placid and meditative as is my chosen life, two thousand miles away from the Moroccan and his burnoose. In my room. Forever.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, The Age of Reason

“كان يحب أن يريها لوحات جميلة وأفلاماً جميلة، وأشياء جميلة، لأنه لم يكن جميلاً، وكان ذلك بمثابة الاعتذار.”
― جان بول سارتر, The Age of Reason

“Well, you're free without wanting to be,' he explained, 'it just happens so, that's all. But Mathieu's freedom is based on reason.'
'I still don't understand,' said Lola, shaking her head.
'Well, he doesn't care a curse about his apartment: he lives there just as he would live anywhere else, and I've got the feeling that he doesn't care much about his girl. He stays with her because he must sleep with someone. His freedom isn't visible, it's inside him.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, The Age of Reason

“If... if I didn't try to get my life moving on my own account, I should think it just absurd to go on living.'
A look of smiling obstinacy had come into Marcelle's face.
'Yes, yes - it's your vice.'
'It's not a vice. It's how I'm made.'
'Why aren't other people made like that, if it isn't a vice?'
'They are, only they don't know it.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, The Age of Reason

“When a man gets drunk he gets sentimental. That's what I wanted to avoid.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, The Age of Reason

“Her smiles, her mimicries, all the words she uttered were addressed to herself through him.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, The Age of Reason

“What a torment it is not to be rich! It gets one into such abject situations.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, The Age of Reason

“Love was not something to be felt, not a particular emotion, nor yet a particular shade of feeling, it was much more like a lowering curse on the horizon, a precursor of disaster.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, The Age of Reason

“I'm not obstinate, I'm highly strung: I don't know how to let myself go. I must always think of what is happening to me - it's a form of self-protection.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, The Age of Reason

“She said it did not matter a bit; but that, if she ever found out I did not believe in Our Christian God, she would commit suicide. She said it so solemnly that it gave me the creeps. It was then I knew she was a woman of principle.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, The Age of Reason

“— Думаєш, я брешу?

— Ні… врешті, в цьому ніколи не можна бути певним. Та я не про це. Знаєш, про що я думаю? Що ти себе трохи стерилізуєш. Якраз сьогодні я про це подумала… О, в тобі усе чисте і охайне, усе пахне білиною, наче ти щойно із лазні. От тільки тобі бракує тіні. Немає нічого зайвого, хисткого, темного. Надто вже світле все. Й не кажи, що робиш ти це задля мене: ти на своєму конику, в тебе смак до самоаналізу.”
― Жан-Поль Сартр, The Age of Reason

“— Не дуже й цікаво мені досліджувати себе, — просто сказав він.

— Я знаю, — відказала Марсель, — та це не мета, це засіб. Щоб звільнитися від самого себе: дивитися на себе, судити себе — це твоя улюблена позиція. Дивлячись на себе, ти уявляєш, що ти не те, на що зараз дивишся, що ти ніщо. По суті, це твій ідеал: бути нічим.”
― Жан-Поль Сартр, The Age of Reason

“Добре, — посміхаючись, мовив Даніель, — дуже добре, це пречудовий урок, і недорого обійшовся, я радий, що він послав мене подалі, якби я був настільки дурний, що дозволив собі виказати цікавість до нього і почав довірливо розмовляти з ним, то він, не тямлячи себе від обурення, доповів про все Матьє, і вони обоє реготалися б із мене». Він так різко зупинився, що дама, котра йшла позаду, пхнула його у спину і зойкнула. «Він казав йому про мене!”
― Жан-Поль Сартр, The Age of Reason

“أحب ستائري الخضراء، أحب أن استنشق الهواء مساء وأنا على شرفتي. ولا أريد أن يتغير ذلك. إنه يروق لي أن أغضب وأغتاظ من الرأسمالية ولا أريد أن تلغى، لأنه لا تبقي لي أسباب للغضب والغيظ.”
― جان بول سارتر, The Age of Reason

“غداً تصبح أكبر سناً مما ينبغي، وستكون لك عاداتك الصغيرة، وستكون عبد حريتك”
― جان بول سارتر, The Age of Reason