Jean-Paul Sartre - The Flies (1944)

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You must be afraid, my son. That is how one becomes an honest citizen.

Jean-Paul Sartre
It is for the sake of order that I seduced Clytemnestra, for the sake of order that I killed my king. I wanted for order to rule and that it rule through me. I have lived without desire, without love, without hope: I made order. Oh! terrible and divine passion!

Jean-Paul Sartre
What do I care about Jupiter? Justice is a human issue, and I do not need a god to teach it to me.

Jean-Paul Sartre
I came to claim my kingdom and you refused me because I was not one of you. Now I am one of you, my subjects, we are bound by blood, and I deserve to be your king. Your sins and your remorse, your mighty anguish, I take all upon myself. Fear your dead no more, they are my dead.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Human life begins on the far side of despair.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Aegistheus, the kings have another secret.... Once liberty has exploded in the soul of a man, the Gods can do nothing against that man. It is a matter for men to handle amongst themselves, and it is up to other men — and to them alone — to let him flee or to destroy him.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Blood doubly unites us, for we share the same blood and we have spilled blood.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Admit it, it is your youth that you regret, more even than your crime; it is my youth you hate, even more than my innocence.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Yes, I am so free. And what a superb absence is my soul.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Ah! How I hate the crimes of the new generation: they are dry and sterile as darnel.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Outside nature, against nature, without excuse, beyond remedy, except what remedy I find within myself.

Jean-Paul Sartre
I am a man, Jupiter, and each man must invent his own path.

Jean-Paul Sartre
You are a tiny little girl, Electra. Other little girls dreamed of being the richest or the most beautiful women of all. And you, fascinated by the horrid destiny of your people, you wished to become the most pained and the most criminal … At your age, children still play with dolls and they play hopscotch. You, poor child, without toys or playmates, you played murder, because it is a game that one can play alone.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Some men are born committed to action: they do not have a choice, they have been thrown on a path, at the end of that path, an act awaits them, their act.

Jean-Paul Sartre
All-powerful god, who am I but the fear that I inspire in others?

Jean-Paul Sartre
Her face seems ravaged by both lightning and hail. But on yours there is something like the promise of a storm: one day passion will burn it to the bone.

Jean-Paul Sartre
But, if it will help ease your irritated souls, please know, dearly departed, that you have ruined our lives.

Jean-Paul Sartre
I felt less alone when I didn't know you yet: I was waiting for the other. I thought only of his strength and never of my weakness. And now here you are, Orestes, it was you. I look at you and I see that we are two orphans.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Your entire universe will not be enough to make me guilty. You are the king of the Gods, Jupiter, the king of the stones and of the stars, the king of the waves of the sea. But you are not the king of men.

Jean-Paul Sartre
We were too light, Electra. Now our feet press down in the earth like the wheels of a cart in its groove. Come with me, and we will walk heavily, bending under the weight of our heavy load.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Suppose that I wish to deserve the title of robber of remorse and that I place in myself all [the townspeople's] repentence?

Jean-Paul Sartre
Ah! Do not judge the gods, young man, they have painful secrets.

Jean-Paul Sartre
The painful secret of gods and kings is that men are free, Aegistheus. You know it and they do not.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Remember, Orestes: you were part of my herd, you grazed in the fields along with my sheep. Your liberty is nothing but a mange eating away at you, it is nothing but an exile.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Be quiet! Anyone can spit in my face, and call me a criminal and a prostitute. But no one has the right to judge my remorse.

Jean-Paul Sartre
A man who is free is like a mangy sheep in a herd. He will contaminate my entire kingdom and ruin my work.

Jean-Paul Sartre
But [your crime] will be there, one hundred times denied, always there, dragging itself behind you. Then you will finally know that you have committed your life with one throw of the die, once and for all, and there is nothing you can do but tug our crime along until your death. Such is the law, just and unjust, of repentance. Then we will see what will become of your young pride.

Jean-Paul Sartre
They are in bad faith — they are afraid — and fear, bad faith have an aroma that the gods find delicious. Yes, the gods like that, the pitiful souls.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Jupiter: I am not your king, impudent larva? Who then has created you?
Orestes: You. But you should not have created me free.

Jean-Paul Sartre
Fear? If I have gained anything by damning myself, it is that I no longer have anything to fear.

Jean-Paul Sartre