Man is nothing else but what he purposes, he exists only in so far as he realizes himself, he is therefore nothing else but the sum of his actions, n… - Jean-Paul Sartre

Dostoevsky once wrote: "If God did not exist, everything would be permitted"; and that, for existentialism, is the starting point. Everything is indeed permitted if God does not exist, and man is in consequence forlorn, for he cannot find anything to depend upon either within or outside himself. He discovers forthwith, that he is without excuse.

I know very well that I don't want to do anything: to do something is to create existence — and there's quite enough existence as it is.

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.