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Quotes from No Exit — Jean-Paul Sartre

1905–1980 France

← All quotes by Jean-Paul Sartre

13 quotes

One always dies too soon — or too late. And yet, life is there, finished: the line is drawn, and it must all be added up. You are nothing other than your life.

No Exit (1944)

If only you knew how little I care. Cowardly or not, as long as he is a good kisser.

No Exit (1944)

If we must absolutely mention this state of affairs, I suggest that we call ourselves "absent", that is more proper.

No Exit (1944)

Criminals together. We're in hell, my little friend, and there's never any mistake there. People are not damned for nothing.

No Exit (1944)

You have stolen my face from me: you know it and I no longer do.

No Exit (1944)

Don't you feel the same way? When I cannot see myself, even though I touch myself, I wonder if I really exist.

No Exit (1944)

It is better; heavier, crueler. The mouth you wear for hell.

No Exit (1944)

So that is what hell is. I would never have believed it. You remember: the fire and brimstone, the torture. Ah! the farce. There is no need for torture: Hell is other people.

No Exit (1944)

We are in hell and I will have my turn!

No Exit (1944)

As for me, I am mean: that means that I need the suffering of others to exist. A flame. A flame in their hearts. When I am all alone, I am extinguished.

No Exit (1944)

A man is what he wills himself to be.

No Exit (1944)

I think of death only with tranquility, as an end. I refuse to let death hamper life. Death must enter life only to define it.

No Exit (1944)

I will take it all: tongs, molten lead, prongs, garrotes, all that burns, all that tears, I want to truly suffer. Better one hundred bites, better the whip, vitriol, than this suffering in the head, this ghost of suffering which grazes and caresses and never hurts enough.

No Exit (1944)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Jean-Paul Sartre (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.