An open wooden drawer floating among plum-colored clouds, with a glowing ladder rising toward golden light.

Original artwork, not a still

Jean-Paul Sartre

Man is not the sum of what he has already, but rather the sum of what he does not yet have, of what he could have.

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

Here a person is defined less by what they already own or are, and more by what they lack and might still become. It's a hopeful reversal of accounting: your possibilities count as part of who you are, so a person is measured by open potential.

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