JEAN-PAUL SARTRE
Characterizations of Existentialism

In a world, man must create his own essence: it is in throwing himself into the world, suffering there, struggling there, that he gradually defines himself ...

Man cannot will unless he has first understood that he must count on no one but himself; that he is alone, abandoned on earth in the midst of his infinite responsibilities, without help, with no other aim than the one he sets himself, with no other destiny than the one he forges for himself on this earth ...

With despair, true optimism begins: the optimism of the man who expects nothing, who knows he has no rights and nothing coming to him, who rejoices in counting on himself alone and in acting alone for the good of all.