25 Sep This is hard for somebody who has not made a success of life (JEAN-PAUL SARTRE)
Many people have but one resource to sustain them in their misery; to think, “circumstances were against me, I was worthy of better. I HAD NO GREAT LOVE because I never met anyone worthy of me.
I wrote no great book because I had no time.
I am filled with a crowd of possibilities greater than anyone could guess from my few achievements.”
BUT IN REALITY, FOR THE EXISTENTIALIST, there is no love other than that which is built, no artistic genius other than in works of art. The genius of Proust is the works of Proust. A man engages in his own life, draws his own portrait, there is nothing more.
This is hard for somebody who has not made a success of life. But it is only reality that counts, not dreams, expectations or hopes. What people reproach us for here is not our pessimism, but the sternness of our optimism.
Existentialism is a Humanism
Jean-Paul Sartre