From Jean-Paul Sartre's Essays in Existentialism:
1. Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself.
2. If man... is undefinable, it is because at first he is nothing. Only afterward will he be something, and he himself will have made what he will be.
3. Existentialism's first move is to make every man aware of what he is and to make the full responsibility of his existence rest on him. And when we say that a man is responsible for himself, we do not only mean that he is responsible for his own individuality, but that he is responsible for all men.
4. I am responsible for myself and for everyone else. I am creating a certain image of man of my own choosing. In choosing myself, I choose man.
5. The existence of man, this being, flung into the world, is essentially finite. Limited by death, his existence is a "being for death"...
6. Not only are we always and as a matter of course in natural relation with the world, but we are in immediate relation with other existents... Even in our most individual and private consciousness, even when we think we are most alone, we are not separated from others.
7. We go beyond ourselves towards the furture. Each of us is always in front of himself. We are always planning and we project ourselves into the plan. Man is a being who is constantly oriented towards his possibilities; the existent is a being who has to exist.
8. Man may take upon himself his own destiny... A man is involved in life, leaves his impress on it, and outside of that there is nothing... A man is nothing else than a series of undertakings, that he is the sum, the organization, the ensemble of the relationships which make up these undertakings.
9. Dostolevsky said, "If God didn't exist, everything would be possible"... Indeed, everything is permissible if God did not exist, and as a result man is forlorn, because neither within him nor without does he find anything to cling to. He can't start making excuses for himself.
10. Man is condemned to be free. Condemned, because he did not create himself, yet in other respects is free; because, once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.
Quote from Harold Kushner:
"It's a sign of maturity when we stop asking 'What does life have in store for me?' and start asking 'What am I doing with my life?'"
Quote from Descartes:
"Conquer yourself rather than the world."
1. Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself.
2. If man... is undefinable, it is because at first he is nothing. Only afterward will he be something, and he himself will have made what he will be.
3. Existentialism's first move is to make every man aware of what he is and to make the full responsibility of his existence rest on him. And when we say that a man is responsible for himself, we do not only mean that he is responsible for his own individuality, but that he is responsible for all men.
4. I am responsible for myself and for everyone else. I am creating a certain image of man of my own choosing. In choosing myself, I choose man.
5. The existence of man, this being, flung into the world, is essentially finite. Limited by death, his existence is a "being for death"...
6. Not only are we always and as a matter of course in natural relation with the world, but we are in immediate relation with other existents... Even in our most individual and private consciousness, even when we think we are most alone, we are not separated from others.
7. We go beyond ourselves towards the furture. Each of us is always in front of himself. We are always planning and we project ourselves into the plan. Man is a being who is constantly oriented towards his possibilities; the existent is a being who has to exist.
8. Man may take upon himself his own destiny... A man is involved in life, leaves his impress on it, and outside of that there is nothing... A man is nothing else than a series of undertakings, that he is the sum, the organization, the ensemble of the relationships which make up these undertakings.
9. Dostolevsky said, "If God didn't exist, everything would be possible"... Indeed, everything is permissible if God did not exist, and as a result man is forlorn, because neither within him nor without does he find anything to cling to. He can't start making excuses for himself.
10. Man is condemned to be free. Condemned, because he did not create himself, yet in other respects is free; because, once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.
Quote from Harold Kushner:
"It's a sign of maturity when we stop asking 'What does life have in store for me?' and start asking 'What am I doing with my life?'"
Quote from Descartes:
"Conquer yourself rather than the world."
it kind of relates in however existentialism can be an empowering, yet critical way to examine self. (might be a stretch, but it still made me type up some shit and i'd love to hear from you later anyway)