“What is meant here by saying that existence precedes essence? It means that, 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.” (p. 36)
“The existentialist … thinks it very distressing that God does not exist, because all possibility of finding values in a heaven of ideas disappears along with him: There can no longer be an a priori Good, since there is no infinite and perfect consciousness to think of it.” (p. 41)
“… that a man is nothing else than a series of undertakings, that he is the sum, the organization, the ensemble of the relationships which make up these undertakings.” (p. 49)
“What people would like is that a coward or a hero be born that way.” (p. 49)
“(Existentialism) can not be taken for a philosophy of quietism, since it defines man in terms of action; nor for a pessimistic description of man — there is no doctrine more optimistic, since man's destiny is within himself; nor for an attempt to discourage man from acting, since it tells him that the only hope is in his acting and that action is the only thing that enables a man to live. Consequently, we are dealing here with an ethics of action and involvement.” (p. 50)
– Jean Paul Sartre, “The Humanism of Existentialism”, in Essays