1001Philosophers

Jean-Paul Sartre Quotes on Virtue

Jean-Paul Sartre was a 20th-century French philosopher, playwright, novelist, and political activist, the leading public exponent of existentialism in the post-war period. This page collects quotes attributed to Jean-Paul Sartre on the topic of virtue, drawn from across the philosopher's works.

Quotes

  • “Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself.”

    p. 41
  • Attributed to Jean-Paul Sartre:

    “We are our choices.”

  • Attributed to Jean-Paul Sartre:

    “Commitment is an act, not a word.”

  • “I am not virtuous. Our sons will be if we shed enough blood to give them the right to be.”

    The Devil and the Good Lord(1951) | Act 3, sc. 5
  • “He chooses the most feared, most hated man in order to worship him as a god, feeling sure that he is alone in perceiving the god's secret virtues.”

    Saint Genet, Actor and Martyr(1952) | p. 165