WIST Quotations

Sartre, Jean-Paul -- “Ideology and Revolution,” Studies on the Left, Vol. 1, #3 (1960)

Dave — Tue, 22 May 2012 13:07:09 +0000

Ideas come in pairs and they contradict one another; their opposition is the principal engine of reflection.

Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) French philosopher and writer
“Ideology and Revolution,” Studies on the Left, Vol. 1, #3 (1960)

Sartre, Jean-Paul -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

If you are lonely when you’re alone, you are in bad company.

[Si vous êtes seul quand vous êtes seul, vous êtes en mauvaise compagnie.]

Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) French philosopher and writer
(Attributed)

Widely attributed, in both languages, to Satre (especially by self-help books), but I am unable to find any actual citation of its source. Given that Sartre wrote a lot about loneliness, it is possibly a paraphrase of of something else he said.

Sartre, Jean-Paul -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Like all dreamers, I mistook disenchantment for truth.

Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) French philosopher and writer
(Attributed)

Sartre, Jean-Paul -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

We cannot withdraw our cards from the game. Were we as silent and mute as stones, our very passivity would be an act.

Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) French philosopher and writer
(Attributed)

Sartre, Jean-Paul -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sat, 25 Oct 2025 21:21:43 +0000

You don’t fight fascism because you’re going to win. You fight fascism because it is fascist.

Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) French philosopher and writer
(Attributed)

Variant:

You don’t fight fascism because you are going to win, you fight fascism because it is fascism.

The phrase is widely attributed to Sartre, but with no citations, and I can find no primary source of his using it. There are some indications that the phrase was actually coined by his friend, the Spanish painter Fernando Gerassi.

The phrase's origin appears to be centered on a discussion in Satre's The Roads to Freedom [Les chemins de la liberté], Book 2 The Reprieve [Le sursis] (1943, pub. 1945) [tr. Sutton (1947)], in this area (English, French) of the novel. French-American academic John "Tito" Gerassi's Talking with Sartre (2009) has two references to the quotation. Gerassi's father, Fernando, was represented in Sartre's novel by the character Gomez, where Sartre was represented by Mathieu.

In his Preface Gerassi writes:

In the novel, Sartre has my father say, "You don't fight fascism because you're going to win. You fight fascism because it is fascist."

Later in the book, during an interview Gerassi held with Sartre in January 1971, there is this exchange:

GERASSI: And that great conversation when Mathieu goes down to see Gomez when he comes across from the front to buy planes or whatever, and Gomez tells him that the Repuyblic has lost. Mathieu can't understand why, in that case, is Gomez going back to fight. Gomez answers that one doesn't fight fascism because one is going to win, one fights fascism because it is fascist. A great response.
SARTRE: Precisely. That's Mathieu and Gomez, but not Sartre and Fernando at that point. I put those words in Gomez's mouth precilselyi because I believed them, but of course in the novel Mathieu had not evolved into a man of action yet, as he does in the third volume. But that's me, as much as Gomez, or your father. I was -- and am today -- absolutely committed to the proposition that one must always fight the fascists. ...

In Tony Monchinski (ed.), Unrepentant Radical Educator: The Writings of John Gerassi, Part 3, ch. 16 "The Politics of the Word and the World" (2009), Monchinski quotes from an interview with John Gerassi (unknown date):

The people who went to Spain expected to die. Sartre confronted my father and asked, "So, any chance you're going to win in span?" "Oh, no, we've lost," my father replied. "Wait," continued Sartre, "You've said that with such assurance. You know you're going to lose?" "Of course. We know we're going to lose. Franco's going to win. It's fait accompli." And Satre said, "But you're going back to Spain?" "Of course." "You're crazy, why go back if you know you're going to lose?" And my father answered, "You don't fight fascism because you're going to win. You fight fascism because they're fascists."

Does all of the above indicate that the phrase (a) came from Fernando Gerassi, as (b) publicized by John Gerassi, but associated with the conversation partner, the much more famous Sartre? If anyone can point to a more specific attribution to Sartre, I am welcome to hearing about it.

Sartre, Jean-Paul -- Existentialism and Human Emotions (1957)

Dave — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 09:48:43 +0000

To choose this or that is to affirm at the same time the value of what we choose, because we can never choose evil. We always choose the good, and nothing can be good for us without being good for all.

Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) French philosopher and writer
Existentialism and Human Emotions (1957)

Sartre, Jean-Paul -- No Exit [Huis Clos] (1944)

Dave — Tue, 04 Jun 2024 15:52:55 +0000

GARCIN: I died too soon. I wasn’t allowed time to — to do my deeds.

INEZ: One always dies too soon — or too late. And yet one’s whole life is complete at that moment, with a line drawn neatly under it, ready for the summing up. You are — your life, and nothing else.

Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) French philosopher and writer
No Exit [Huis Clos] (1944)
(Source)