“He walked on in silence, the solitary sound of his footsteps echoing in his head, as in a deserted street, at dawn. His solitude was so complete, beneath a lovely sky as mellow and serene as a good conscience, amid that busy throng, that he was amazed at his own existence; he must be somebody else's nightmare, and whoever it was would certainly awaken soon.”

French philosopher, political activist, and writer

Jean-Paul Sartre was a French philosopher, political activist, and writer. He was a leading figure in 20th-century French philosophy and Marxism, and one of the central thinkers associated with existentialism. He also supported Libertarian Marxism, and his work went on to shape sociology, critical theory, post-colonial theory, and literary studies. In 1964, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature, though he tried to refuse it, saying that he usually declined official honors and that a writer should not become an institution.