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All my life I've been trying to find a place where I can belong, and all my life I've known that no such place exists.

Often attributed to Jean-Paul Sartre

Literature

The story behind the card

This wording is widely shared under the name of Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980), the French philosopher and novelist, but it has not been traced to any of his books, plays or interviews. The feeling is close to his work, though. In his first novel, Nausea (1938), the narrator Antoine Roquentin comes to feel that he, like everything around him, is superfluous: there for no reason and fitting nowhere. Sartre's existentialism starts from that point: since no nature is handed to us in advance, each person makes meaning through their own choices.

Türkçe oku
Ömrüm boyunca ait olabileceğim bir yer aradım ve ömrüm boyunca öyle bir yerin olmadığını bildim.
Genellikle Jean-Paul Sartre'a atfedilir

Bu cümle Fransız filozof ve romancı Jean-Paul Sartre'ın (1905-1980) adıyla çok paylaşılır; ama kitaplarında, oyunlarında ya da söyleşilerinde geçtiği gösterilememiştir. Anlattığı duygu yine de Sartre'a yabancı değildir. İlk romanı Bulantı'da (1938) anlatıcı Antoine Roquentin, kendisinin de çevresindeki her şeyin de fazlalık olduğunu hissetmeye başlar: Hiçbir nedeni olmadan oradadır ve hiçbir yere uymaz. Sartre'ın varoluşçuluğu buradan yola çıkar: İnsana önceden verilmiş bir öz olmadığına göre, herkes anlamı kendi seçimleriyle kurar.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Jean-Paul Sartre
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