Maurice Merleau-Ponty Quotes

The world is... the natural setting of, and field for, all my thoughts and all my explicit perceptions. Truth does not inhabit only the inner man, or more accurately, there is no inner man, man is in the world, and only in the world does he know himself.

The 'I think' which Kant said must be able to accompany all my objects, is the 'I breathe' which actually does accompany them.

The only thing on earth that can determine itself is a human soul.

Free agency is a gift of God....The world does not comprehend the significance of that divine gift to the individual. It is as inherent as intelligence which, we are told, has never been nor can be created

Unlike puppets we have the possibility of stopping in our movements, looking up and perceiving the machinery by which we have been moved. In this act lies the first steps towards freedom.

People will want you to behave a certain way, to make a certain choice because it reinforces the way they see the world...But you have to do what's right for you.

I still live, I still think: I still have to live, for I still have to think.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm a character being written, or if I'm writing myself.

Your life is yours to live, no matter how you choose to live it. When you do not think about how you intend to live it, it lives you. When you occupy it, step into it consciously, you live it.

Freedom begins as we become conscious of it.

To me, it seems a dreadful indignity to have a soul controlled by geography.

To know what you prefer instead of humbly saying Amen to what the world tells you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive.

Don't let other people tell you what you want.

I drink therefore I am.

I can say whatever it is that I feel.

Trusting your gut is always the best thing - no matter what people around you insist you should be doing or saying or thinking. Only you know and once you live in truth, your heart is completely free.

Existentialism means that no one else can take a bath for you.

Where conscious subjectivity is concerned, there is no distinction between the observation and the thing observed.

The genius of a free society is that its citizens have wide scope to pursue their own visions of the good without excessive hindrance by their fellow citizens.

I am, therefore I'll think.

From a purely positivist point of view, man is the most mysterious and disconcerting of all the objects met with by science.

Most actions derive not from your own initiative but from your family circumstances, your education, your calling, and so on. You must therefore give up a little time to performing actions which derive from yourself alone. They need not be important; quite insignificant actions fulfill the same purpose.

Political freedom is to be cherished indeed. But there is no political freedom that is not indissolubly bound to the inner personal freedom of the individuals who make up that nation: no liberty of a nation of conformists, no free nation made up of robots.

I want a nonfiction that explores our shifting, unstable, multiform, evanescent experience in and of the world.

Every choice leads you somewhere, but it might not be where you truly want to be if the decision is based on someone else. It could lead to regrets and what-ifs, but that doesn't mean you wouldn't still have valuable experiences.