Daar is de lente, daar is de zon bijna, maar ik denk dat ze weldra zal komen. De fallus impudicus staat al in bloei En de blaadjes krijgen bomen. M'n vrouw en m'n kat zijn allebei krols en de klokken vertrekken naar Rome

Ich bin zu alt, um nur zu spielen.
Zu jung, um ohne Wunsch zu sein.

How can I believe in God when just last week I got my tongue caught in the roller of an electric typewriter? --Woody Allen

We are left to our own devices and I think that is was Sartre thought. Even more, he stresses the fact offree will, which is in us, and which is perhaps not created to be in order of any subordination.

Freedom is the best thing in the world. It is like a breath of fresh air in the early morning or like a cool breeze in summer.
I enjoy freedom and always want more and more of it.

"Once you accept all your responsibilities in its totality,
you become mature.
You stop throwing tantrums and
you stop seeking messiahs.
Then there is no need for any Jesus to save you.
Nor can any Jesus save you -
he was exploiting your situation." --- Osho

Well there goes what i was gonna post .............this ones clever one, we must watch him carefully and bring him do the dark side......sorry star wars was on tv and i lost track of this post but yeah i guess everyone here got it right because theirs no wrong answer

blarg!

because he was afraid of what he considered freedom????

If he meant this extreme form of freedom I would also consider it a burden. To be completely free simply means not to be needed.
And thus not to have anything to care for - depressing vision...

there is nothing to it

Well, we're gonna die, and that seriously will make us free or at least not tied to this world we know.

Little to the left.

Because we can’t choose our existence, i.e. our birth.

Well, adding to the right things deng and shaka mentioned, in Sartres view, man has no choice but to choose (I know this sounds funny, but it is quite logic.). Since Sartre was atheist, therefore his teachings contain the thought of being FULLY responsible for EVERYTHING you do or what you don't do or what is done because of you. The existence before the essence. You exist, you do not know how or why, because there is no god. You are free, you cannot choose to be unfree, because there is no God or Fate or higher reason that could be held responsible or that relieves you from your choices. Everything that happens, be it consequence by your doing or even fortuitousness, you are responsible. You have to live with every consequence and at the end of your life, the only thing that counts is the sum of your actions. Every time you stand before a choice, you choose. Whatever you choose, be it acting or refusing to choose, there is a consequence. You are free in choice, and free to act and live. But the enormous burden of choice and life made Sartre feel that freedom was more of doom, than holy gift.

The economic anarchy of capitalist society as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of the evil. We see before us a huge community of producers the members of which are unceasingly striving to deprive each other of the fruits of their collective labour. I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
~ Albert Einstein

Oh yes, and I forgot. Bad Kitteh, I like the fact that you chose to liven up this forum with a question about Sartre, but if you really want to know what he was about read his books. Don't start with the horrid ones ("Nausea", "Dirty Hands" etc.) but start with some easy ones like "No Exit" (very funny) or "Existentialism is a humanism". The later one is excellent for understanding his view on things. For later readings I recommend "The Wall" which is an exquisite piece of literature and a little disturbing. Even more beautiful to read it in french.

The economic anarchy of capitalist society as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of the evil. We see before us a huge community of producers the members of which are unceasingly striving to deprive each other of the fruits of their collective labour. I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
~ Albert Einstein

That we are able to chose means, that we are responsable for everything we have influenced by either doing something or by doing nothing. We are responsable for every child that died because we did NOT donate some money for the Red Cross or another organisation. We are responsable for wars when we did NOT try to fight against it. We are responsable for climate change and the catastrophies it causes (in the measure in which we could have awoided it by living "on a tree like an ape").
Do you remember what Galadriel said to Frodo? It was somethin like "Even the smallest of us can influence the world's destiny." As we influence it, we are responsable for it. That's why freedom is hell.

Ce n'est pas une pomme

Bücher sind gut oder schlecht geschrieben. Damit ist alles gesagt.