A Quote by Jean-Paul Sartre

Existence precedes and rules essence.

Jean-Paul Sartre

Quote Topics

Essence Existence Precedes Rules

Quote Author

Jean-Paul Sartre
French - Novelist
June 21, 1905 - April 15, 1980

Freedom is existence, and in it existence precedes essence.

Jean-Paul Sartre

Man's existence precedes his essence

Jean-Paul Sartre

There are two kinds of existentialist; first, those who are Christian...and on the other hand the atheistic existentialists, among whom...I class myself. What they have in common is that they think that existence precedes essence, or, if you prefer, that subjectivity must be the turning point.

Jean-Paul Sartre

What do we mean by saying that existence precedes essence? We mean that man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world-and defines himself afterward.

Jean-Paul Sartre

I guess I've always written more from the opposite perspective, that kind of existentialist perspective which argues that existence precedes essence. And there really isn't anything essential in there - you're the product of your actions, which can always change. And they retrospectively make you one way or another.

Zadie Smith

What is meant here by saying that existence precedes essence? It means first of all, man exists, turns up, appears on the scene, and, only afterwards, defines himself. If man, as the existentialist conceives him, is indefinable, it is because at first he is nothing. Only afterward will he be something, and he himself will have made what he will be.

Jean-Paul Sartre

Money is the alienated essence of man's work and existence; this essence dominates him and he worships it.

Karl Marx

The very essence of your Being is infinite, eternal silence. It is your true nature. It is the essence of all existence.

Leonard Jacobson

I think that the essence of being an artist is to break rules. You have to learn rules, and you have to break them, because if you make art only by the rules, then you make very boring art.

Johann Johannsson

If we examine the essence of existence, we'll find that the essence is love. There really is nothing that isn't love.

Frederick Lenz

All morality consists in a system of rules, and the essence of all morality is to be sought for in the respect which the individual acquires for these rules.

Jean Piaget

It is impossible to believe anything into existence. The gospel did not come into being because men believed it...The fact always precedes the faith.

Billy Graham

You see everything is about belief, whatever we believe rules our existence, rules our life.

Miguel Angel Ruiz

Religion must mainly be a matter of principles only. It cannot be a matter of rules. The moment it degenerates into rules, it ceases to be a religion, as it kills responsibility which is an essence of the true religious act.

B. R. Ambedkar

We are deeply conditioned against unconditionality because we've been told in a thousand different ways that accomplishment always precedes acceptance, that achievement always precedes approval.