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Existentialism

Existentialism names a family of philosophies that treat human existence, freedom, and responsibility as primary—often before abstract systems.

Overview

Though diverse, existential writers share concerns with anxiety, authenticity, bad faith, absurdity, and the demand to choose under uncertainty. Kierkegaard and Nietzsche prepare the ground; Sartre, Beauvoir, and Camus make mid-century public debates about freedom and meaning.

Historical notes

Nineteenth-century precursors meet twentieth-century phenomenology and postwar literature. Not all associated figures accepted the label—Camus resisted “existentialist”—yet the cluster remains useful for readers of freedom and meaning.

Core ideas

  • Existence precedes essence for human beings (Sartre’s slogan).
  • Freedom brings responsibility; evasion is bad faith.
  • Meaning may be created, discovered, or confronted as absurd.
  • Concrete situations matter more than empty abstractions.

Thinkers in this archive

Søren Kierkegaard , Jean-Paul Sartre , Albert Camus , Simone de Beauvoir , Viktor Frankl , Martin Buber , Paul Tillich , Gabriel Marcel , Blaise Pascal , Friedrich Nietzsche

FAQ

What is existentialism?

It is a philosophical approach emphasizing concrete human existence, freedom, choice, and responsibility.

Is Camus an existentialist?

Camus is often grouped with existential writers but preferred the language of the absurd and revolt; read him alongside, not simply under, Sartre.

Where are existentialism quotes?

Browse the verified English passages below, then follow thinker pages for Sartre, Beauvoir, Camus, and Kierkegaard.

  1. Despair is the sickness unto death — the self's refusal to be itself.
  2. Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.
  3. Existence precedes essence.
  4. Man is condemned to be free.
  5. The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.
  6. There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide.
  7. I rebel — therefore we exist.
  8. One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.
  9. Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.
  10. Those who have a 'why' to live can bear with almost any 'how'.
  11. There are more things to admire in men than to despise.
  12. To will oneself free is also to will others free.
  13. Marry, and you will regret it; do not marry, and you will also regret it.
  14. Despair is not to will to be oneself — or else to will to be oneself.
  15. In choosing himself, man chooses all men.
  16. Man is nothing other than what he makes of himself.
  17. Rebellion cannot do without the notion of a limit — it stops at human dignity.
  18. All real living is meeting.
  19. The courage to be is the courage to accept oneself as accepted in spite of being unacceptable.
  20. Hope consists in asserting that there is at the heart of being… a mysterious principle which is in connivance with me.
  21. All our dignity consists, then, in thought.
  22. The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me.
  23. All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.
  24. The self is a relation that relates itself to itself.
  25. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.
  26. Man is a useless passion.
  27. It is quite true what philosophy says, that life must be understood backwards. But then one forgets the other principle: that it must be lived forwards.
  28. In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.
  29. All of humanity’s misfortune comes from one thing: not knowing how to remain quietly in a room.
  30. Despair is a sickness of the spirit.
  31. Three metamorphoses of the spirit I name for you: how the spirit becomes a camel, and the camel a lion, and the lion at last a child.
  32. What does not kill me makes me stronger.
  33. Man is visibly made to think; that is his whole dignity and his whole merit.
  34. To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself.
  35. Would you have this life again? — Well then! Once more!
  36. The freedom of others… conditions my freedom.
  37. Courage is the self-affirmation of being in spite of the fact of nonbeing.
  38. True eloquence mocks eloquence.
  39. Man is a rope stretched between animal and overman — a rope over an abyss.