But I remained close to people, on the surface of solitude, quite resolved to take refuge in their midst in case of emergency. Up to now I was an amateur at heart.

–Jean Paul Sartre,Nausea

I'm afraid of what will be born and take possession of me and drag me–where?

Shall I awake in a few months, in a few years, broken, deceived, in the midst of new ruins? I would like to see the truth clearly before it is too late.

The thing is that I rarely think; a crowd of small metamorphoses accumulate in me without my noticing it, and then, one fine day, a veritable revolution takes place

It came as an illness does, not like an ordinary certainty, not like anything evident. It came cunningly, little by little; I felt a little strange, a little put out, that's all.

Once established it never moved, it stayed quiet, and I was able to persuade myself that nothing was the matter with me, that it was a false alarm. And now, it's blossoming.

Our responsibility is thus much greater than we might have supposed, because it concerns all mankind.

Thus, there is no human nature, since there is no God to conceive it.

It is man who conceives himself, who propels himself towards existence. Man becomes nothing other than what is actually done, not what he will want to be.