What Jean-Paul Sartre Actually Said About Fear
All 4 Jean-Paul Sartre passages on fear, in full — what each one claims, what holds them together, and who argues the other way.
Jean-Paul Sartre returns to fear four times in thinkr's library — more often than to almost anything else. French existentialist novelist and philosopher. Held that existence precedes essence — we are condemned to be free, and to bear the weight of our choices.
What follows is every one of those passages, in full, with what each is actually claiming. The language is of its period, but the question underneath is not: what is fear for, and what does it ask of you?
Every Jean-Paul Sartre passage on fear
“Fear? If I have gained anything by damning myself, it is that I no longer have anything to fear.”
“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.”
“You must be afraid, my son. That is how one becomes an honest citizen.”
“All-powerful god, who am I but the fear that I inspire in others?”
What holds these together
Read in sequence rather than one at a time, the passages stop being separate aphorisms. Jean-Paul Sartre is not offering four opinions about fear; the lines are facets of one position, and the repetition is the argument. The shortest of them — “All-powerful god, who am I but the fear that I inspire in others” — is the version you can carry, and the longer ones are what it unpacks into.
Jean-Paul Sartre applied to a real decision
Quotation is the easy part. The harder test is what the position actually does when it meets a situation where every option costs something. thinkr puts two such cases to Jean-Paul Sartre.
You can choose the easier year or the harder, better one.
Argued as existential challenge: You are treating growth as a responsibility, not a mood. The risk is worshiping difficulty for its own sake.
A group accepts you only when you hide a real part of yourself.
Argued as authentic freedom: You are refusing bad faith: the bargain where comfort costs your selfhood. The risk is turning every compromise into betrayal.
Work through these yourself
- You can choose the easier year or the harder, better one. — argued from existential challenge and several competing positions
- A group accepts you only when you hide a real part of yourself. — argued from authentic freedom and several competing positions
Who disagrees
Albert Camus, Buddha, Confucius and Henry David Thoreau all address fear too, and they do not converge. Reading Jean-Paul Sartre alone gives you a coherent position; reading Jean-Paul Sartre against Albert Camus shows you what the position is actually choosing against.