That existence has meaning, finally, only as the liberty to say No, and by saying No to create a world. - William Barrett

The essential freedom, the ultimate and final freedom that cannot be taken from a man, is to say No. This is the basic premise in Sartre's view of human freedom: freedom is in its very essence negative, though the negativity is also creative.

Jaspers sees the historical meaning of existential philosophy as a struggle to awaken in the individual the possibilities of an authentic and genuine life, in the face of the great modern drift toward a standardized mass society.

Poets are witnesses to Being before the philosophers are able to bring it into thought.