p. 41

Quietism is the attitude of people who say, "let others do what I cannot do." The doctrine I am presenting before you is precisely the opposite of this, since it declares that there is no reality except in action. It goes further, indeed, and adds, "Man is nothing else but what he purposes, he exists only in so far as he realizes himself, he is therefore nothing else but the sum of his actions, nothing else but what his life is." Hence we can well understand why some people are horrified by our teaching.

— Jean-Paul Sartre

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Quietism is the attitude of people who say, "let others do what I cannot do." The doctrine I am presenting before you is precisely the opposite of this, since it declares that there is no reality except in action. It goes further, indeed, and adds, "Man is nothing else but what he purposes, he exists only in so far as he realizes himself, he is therefore nothing else but the sum of his actions, nothing else but what his life is." Hence we can well understand why some people are horrified by our teaching." in the context of "p. 41" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "Jean-Paul Sartre" (Quotes, Existentialism Is a Humanism (1946): L'existentialisme est un humanisme (1946), an essay based on a lecture at Club Maintenant in Paris (29 October 1945); initially translated as Existentialism and Humanism by Philip Mairet (London: Methuen & Co Ltd, 1948); titled Existentialism Is a Humanism in Existentialism from Dostoyevsky to Sartre, ed. Walter Kaufmann (New York, Meridian Books Inc., 1956), pp. 287–311. ) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Jean-Paul Sartre

About Jean-Paul Sartre

Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980), normally known simply as Jean-Paul Sartre, was a French existentialist philosopher, dramatist and screenwriter, novelist, and critic. He had an enduring personal relationship with fellow philosopher Simone de Beauvoir.