Encounters Quote by Jean-Paul Sartre

What is meant here by saying that existence precedes essence? It means first of all, man exists, turns up, appears on the scene, and,…

— Jean-Paul Sartre

Man's existence precedes his essence

— Jean-Paul Sartre

Existence is prior to essence.

— Anonymous

In God alone, essence (what He is) and existence (that he is) coincide.

— Avicenna

I guess I've always written more from the opposite perspective, that kind of existentialist perspective which argues that existence precedes essence. And there really…

— Zadie Smith

It is only after that we understand what has come before, then we understand nothing. Thus we shall define the soul as follows: that…

— R. Scott Bakker

That whose existence is necessary must necessarily be one essence.

— Avicenna

“Atheistic existentialism, of which I am a representative, declares with greater consistency that if God does not exist there is at least one being…

— Jean-Paul Sartre

“Humans are the beings whose essence is in not having an essence”

— Simone de Beauvoir

By "essence" I understand a universal, of any degree of complexity and definition, which may be given immediately, whether to sense or to thought……

— George Santayana

Existence begins in every instant.

— Friedrich Nietzsche

Each human needs to find his or her timeless and formless essence identity

— Eckhart Tolle