Nausea

“The essential thing is to avoid all the horrors of romantic love. That is, the romantic love of the bourgeois, which begins with love at first sight and ends with marriage and reconciliation. It is all a question of being able to continue to be oneself.”

— Roquentin's internal thoughts on the nature of love and relationships, contrasting with societal norms.

“I am free: I have no more reasons for living, all the ones I had have been destroyed, and the others haven't been born yet.”

— Roquentin's realization of his absolute freedom and the accompanying lack of inherent meaning after his personal crisis.

“Every existing thing is born without reason, prolongs itself out of weakness, and dies by chance.”

— A central philosophical reflection by Roquentin on the contingency and absurdity of existence.

“I too am soft, I am flabby, I am obscene, I am living.”

— Roquentin's visceral experience of his own body and the physical world, leading to a feeling of disgust.

“To exist is simply to be there; those who exist appear, let themselves be encountered, but you can never deduce anything from them.”

— Roquentin's observation about the brute fact of existence, which precedes essence and defies rational explanation.

“I feel that I am going to burst into tears. I can’t bear it anymore. I am full of objects; I am full of things.”

— Roquentin's overwhelming sensation of the world's materiality and its oppressive presence.

“Man is a useless passion.”

— Though more famously associated with 'Being and Nothingness', the sentiment of humanity's striving being ultimately futile is present in Roquentin's reflections.

“The word 'adventure' is a trap. I have lived, I have suffered, I have sought myself, I have lost myself, I have found myself, I have gone to the end of the world, and I have found nothing.”

— Roquentin's disillusionment with the romanticized notion of adventure, finding it empty and meaningless.

“Nothing happens while you live. The scenery changes, people come in and go out, that’s all. There are no beginnings. Days are tacked on to days without rhyme or reason, an interminable, monotonous addition.”

— Roquentin's perception of life as a series of disconnected, unclimactic events, devoid of dramatic structure.

“I must be like a tree, always rooted in the same soil, with the same leaves, the same branches, the same fruit. I must be like a stone, always the same, always silent, always alone.”

— Roquentin's desire for a stable, unchanging existence, contrasting with his fluid and nauseating experience of reality.

“I am alone, and it is a good thing that I am alone.”

— Roquentin's acceptance of his solitude, seeing it as a necessary condition for his self-discovery and freedom.

“I have only my past, and even that is dissolving. The present is nothing but an empty interval.”

— Roquentin's struggle with the ephemeral nature of time, where the past loses its solidity and the present feels void.

“The Nausea is not inside me: it is all around me, in all things. It is the very texture of this chair, this red of the carpet, this smell of the sea.”

— Roquentin's realization that the Nausea is not merely a subjective feeling but an objective quality of the world itself.

“So this is the famous freedom. I am free to do nothing, to be nothing, to choose nothing.”

— Roquentin's cynical reflection on the burden of absolute freedom, which can feel like a lack of purpose or direction.