Albert Camus Quotes

To work and create “for nothing,” to sculpture in clay, to know one’s creation has no future, to see one’s work destroyed in a day while being aware that fundamentally this has no more importance than building for centuries — this is the difficult wisdom that absurd thought sanctions. Performing these two tasks simultaneously, negating on the one hand and magnifying on the other, it the way open to the absurd creator. He must give the void its colors. - View Quote Details on To work and create “for nothing,” to sculpture in clay,…
Conformity is one of the nihilistic temptations of rebellion which dominate a large part of our intellectual history. It demonstrates how the rebel who takes to action is tempted to succumb, if he forgets his origins, to the most absolute conformity. And so it explains the twentieth century. - View Quote Details on Conformity is one of the nihilistic temptations of rebellion which…
To create is likewise to give a shape to one’s fate. - View Quote Details on To create is likewise to give a shape to one’s…
There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn. - View Quote Details on There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.
I was assailed by memories of a life that wasn’t mine anymore, but one in which I’d found the simplest and most lasting joys. - View Quote Details on I was assailed by memories of a life that wasn’t…
Every achievement is a servitude. It drives us to a higher achievement. - View Quote Details on Every achievement is a servitude. It drives us to a…
The actor’s realm is that of the fleeting. - View Quote Details on The actor’s realm is that of the fleeting.
Nothing is harder to understand than a symbolic work. A symbol always transcends the one who makes use of it and makes him say in reality more than he is aware of expressing. - View Quote Details on Nothing is harder to understand than a symbolic work. A…
All systems of morality are based on the idea that an action has consequences that legitimize or cancel it. A mind imbued with the absurd merely judges that those consequences must be considered calmly. It is ready to pay up. In other words, there may be responsible persons, but there are no guilty ones, in its opinion. At very most, such a mind will consent to use past experience as a basis for its future actions. - View Quote Details on All systems of morality are based on the idea that…
Knowing that certain nights whose sweetness lingers will keep returning to the earth and sea after we are gone, yes, this helps us to die. - View Quote Details on Knowing that certain nights whose sweetness lingers will keep returning…
I don’t know why, but something inside me snapped. I started yelling at the top of my lungs, and I insulted him and told him not to waste his prayers on me. I grabbed him by the collar of his cassock. I was pouring out on him everything that was in my heart, cries of anger and cries of joy.
He seemed so certain about everything, didn’t he? And yet none of his certainties was worth one hair of a woman’s head. He wasn’t even sure he was alive, because he was living like a dead man. Whereas it looked as if I was the one who’d come up emptyhanded. But I was sure about me, about everything, surer than he could ever be, sure of my life and sure of the death I had waiting for me. Yes, that was all I had. But at least I had as much of a hold on it as it had on me. I had been right, I was still right, I was always right. I had lived my life one way and I could just as well have lived it another. I had done this and I hadn’t done that. I hadn’t done this thing but I had done another. And so? It was as if I had waited all this time for this moment and for the first light of this dawn to be vindicated. Nothing, nothing mattered, and I knew why. So did he. Throughout the whole absurd life I’d lived, a dark wind had been rising toward me from somewhere deep in my future, across years that were still to come, and as it passed, this wind leveled whatever was offered to me at the time, in years no more real than the ones I was living. What did other people’s deaths or a mother’s love matter to me; what did his God or the lives people choose or the fate they think they elect matter to me when we’re all elected by the same fate, me and billions of privileged people like him who also called themselves my brothers? Couldn’t he see, couldn’t he see that? Everybody was privileged. There were only privileged people. The others would all be condemned one day. And he would be condemned, too. - View Quote Details on I don’t know why, but something inside me snapped. I…
Absolute freedom mocks at justice. Absolute justice denies freedom. To be fruitful, the two ideas must find their limits in each other. - View Quote Details on Absolute freedom mocks at justice. Absolute justice denies freedom. To…
N’attendez pas le Jugement dernier. Il a lieu tous les jours. - View Quote Details on N’attendez pas le Jugement dernier. Il a lieu tous les…
We have to live and let live in order to create what we are. - View Quote Details on We have to live and let live in order to…
There is so much stubborn hope in the human heart. The most destitute men often end up by accepting illusion. That approval prompted by the need for peace inwardly parallels the existential consent. There are thus gods of light and idols of mud. But it is essential to find the middle path leading to the faces of man. - View Quote Details on There is so much stubborn hope in the human heart…
The great novelists are philosopher-novelists whom write in images instead of arguments. - View Quote Details on The great novelists are philosopher-novelists whom write in images instead…
The gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of its own weight. They had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor. - View Quote Details on The gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock…
Historical reasoning is not a type of reasoning that, within the framework of its own functions, can pass judgment on the world. While pretending to judge it, it really tries to determine its course. Essentially a part of events, it directs them and is simultaneously pedagogic and all-conquering. - View Quote Details on Historical reasoning is not a type of reasoning that, within…
We turn our backs on nature; we are ashamed of beauty. Our wretched tragedies have a smell of the office clinging to them, and the blood that trickles from them is the color of printer’s ink. - View Quote Details on We turn our backs on nature; we are ashamed of…
The night on Golgotha is so important in the history of man only because, in its shadow, the divinity abandoned its traditional privileges and drank to the last drop, despair included, the agony of death. This is the explanation of the Lama sabactani and the heartrending doubt of Christ in agony. The agony would have been mild if it had been alleviated by hopes of eternity. For God to be a man, he must despair. - View Quote Details on The night on Golgotha is so important in the history…
Nous nous trompons toujours deux fois sur ceux que nous aimons: d’abord à leur avantage, puis à leur désavantage. - View Quote Details on Nous nous trompons toujours deux fois sur ceux que nous…
A man wants to earn money in order to be happy, and his whole effort and best of a life are devoted to earning that money. Happiness is forgotten; the means are taken for the end. - View Quote Details on A man wants to earn money in order to be…
Manhattan. Sometimes from beyond the skyscrapers, across of thousands of high walls, the cry of a tugboat finds you in your insomnia in the middle of the night, and you remember that this desert of iron and cement is an island. - View Quote Details on Manhattan. Sometimes from beyond the skyscrapers, across of thousands of…
For some time the entire effort of our philosophers has aimed solely at replacing the notion of human nature with that of situation, and replacing ancient harmony with the disorderly advance of chance or reason’s pitiless progress. Whereas the Greeks gave to will the boundaries of reason, we have come to put the will’s impulse in the very center of reason, which has, as a result, become deadly. - View Quote Details on For some time the entire effort of our philosophers has…
In our daily trials rebellion plays the same role as does the “cogito” in the realm of thought: it is the first piece of evidence. But this evidence lures the individual from his solitude. It founds its first value on the whole human race. I rebel — therefore we exist. - View Quote Details on In our daily trials rebellion plays the same role as…
Utopia replaces God by the future. Then it proceeds to identify the future with ethics; the only values are those which serve this particular future. For that reason Utopias have almost always been coercive and authoritarian. - View Quote Details on Utopia replaces God by the future. Then it proceeds to…
With rebellion, awareness is born. - View Quote Details on With rebellion, awareness is born.
All of us, among the ruins, are preparing a renaissance beyond the limits of nihilism. But few of us know it. - View Quote Details on All of us, among the ruins, are preparing a renaissance…
Totalitarian tyranny is not based on the virtues of the totalitarians. It is based on the mistakes of the liberals. - View Quote Details on Totalitarian tyranny is not based on the virtues of the…
Philosophy secularizes the ideal. But tyrants appear who soon secularize the philosophies that give them the right to do so. - View Quote Details on Philosophy secularizes the ideal. But tyrants appear who soon secularize…
There are means that cannot be excused. - View Quote Details on There are means that cannot be excused.
The divine availability of the condemned man before whom the prison doors open in a certain early dawn, that unbelievable disinterestedness with regard to everything except for the pure flame of life — it is clear that death and the absurd are here the principles of the only reasonable freedom: that which a human heart can experience and live. - View Quote Details on The divine availability of the condemned man before whom the…
Half a man’s life is spent in implying, in turning away, and in keeping silent. - View Quote Details on Half a man’s life is spent in implying, in turning…
In certain men, the fire of eternity consuming them is great enough for them to burn in it the very heart of those closest to them. - View Quote Details on In certain men, the fire of eternity consuming them is…
Of all kinds of fate the least deceptive is the one that is lived. - View Quote Details on Of all kinds of fate the least deceptive is the…
At this point of his effort man stands face to face with the irrational. He feels within him his longing for happiness and for reason. The absurd is born of this confrontation between the human need and the unreasonable silence of the world. This must not be forgotten. This must be clung to because the whole consequence of a life can depend on it. The irrational, the human nostalgia, and the absurd that is born of their encounter — these are the three characters in the drama that must necessarily end with all the logic of which an existence is capable. - View Quote Details on At this point of his effort man stands face to…
Our criminals are no longer helpless children who could plead love as their excuse. On the contrary, they are adults and they have a perfect alibi: philosophy, which can be used for any purpose — even for transforming murderers into judges. - View Quote Details on Our criminals are no longer helpless children who could plead…
Lucifer also has died with God, and from his ashes has arisen a spiteful demon who does not even understand the object of his venture. - View Quote Details on Lucifer also has died with God, and from his ashes…
He who rejects the entire past, without keeping any part of it which could serve to breathe life into the revolution, condemns himself to finding justification only in the future and, in the meantime, to entrusting the police with the task of justifying the provisional state of affairs… The future is the only transcendental value for men without God. - View Quote Details on He who rejects the entire past, without keeping any part…
To a man devoid of blinders, there is no finer sight than that of the intelligence at grips with a reality that transcends it. - View Quote Details on To a man devoid of blinders, there is no finer…
If Nietzsche and Hegel serve as alibis to the masters of Dachau and Karaganda, that does not condemn their entire philosophy. But it does lead to the suspicion that one aspect of their thought, or of their logic, can lead to these appalling conclusions. - View Quote Details on If Nietzsche and Hegel serve as alibis to the masters…
To impoverish that reality whose inhumanity constitutes man’s majesty is tantamount to impoverishing him himself. I understand then why the doctrines that explain everything to me also debilitate me at the same time. They relieve me of the weight of my own life, and yet I must carry it alone. - View Quote Details on To impoverish that reality whose inhumanity constitutes man’s majesty is…
Even revolution, particularly revolution, which claims to be materialist, is only a limitless metaphysical crusade. - View Quote Details on Even revolution, particularly revolution, which claims to be materialist, is…
Poor and free rather than rich and enslaved. Of course, men want to be both rich and free, and this is what leads them at times to be poor and enslaved. - View Quote Details on Poor and free rather than rich and enslaved. Of course,…
From the evening breeze to this hand on my shoulder, everything has its truth. Consciousness illuminates it by paying attention to it. - View Quote Details on From the evening breeze to this hand on my shoulder,…
The majority of revolutions are shaped by, and derive their originality from, murder. - View Quote Details on The majority of revolutions are shaped by, and derive their…
The irrational imposes limits on the rational, which, in its turn, gives it its moderation. - View Quote Details on The irrational imposes limits on the rational, which, in its…
There always comes a time in history when the person who dares to say that 2+2=4 is punished by death. And the issue is not what reward or what punishment will be the outcome of that reasoning. The issue is simply whether or not 2+2=4. - View Quote Details on There always comes a time in history when the person…
Ironic philosophies produce passionate works.
Any thought that abandons unity glorifies diversity! And diversity is the home of art. The only thought to liberate the mind is that which leaves it alone, certain of its limits and of its impending end. No doctrine tempts it. It awaits the ripening of the work and of life. - View Quote Details on Ironic philosophies produce passionate works.
Any thought that abandons…
Suffering is never provisional for the man who does not believe in the future. - View Quote Details on Suffering is never provisional for the man who does not…
As a writer Camus maintained his independence from both friends and enemies in the political and philosophical movements that attempted to subvert his writing to their own ends…. Camus combines a taut writing style, as well as profound insights on society, with the courage to report back from the abyss of despair, unblinking. - View Quote Details on As a writer Camus maintained his independence from both friends…
To create today is to create dangerously… Danger makes men classical, and all greatness, after all, is rooted in risk. - View Quote Details on To create today is to create dangerously… Danger makes men…
All executioners are of the same family. - View Quote Details on All executioners are of the same family.
There is merely bad luck in not being loved; there is misfortune in not loving. All of us, today, are dying of this misfortune. For violence and hatred dry up the heart itself; the long fight for justice exhausts the love that nevertheless gave birth to it. - View Quote Details on There is merely bad luck in not being loved; there…
In the difficult hour we are living, what else can I desire than to exclude nothing and to learn how to braid with white thread and black thread a single cord stretched to the breaking-point? In everything I have done or said up to now, I seem to recognize these two forces, even when they are at cross-purposes. - View Quote Details on In the difficult hour we are living, what else can…
What on earth prompted you to take a hand in this?”
“I don’t know. My… my code of morals, perhaps.”
“Your code of morals. What code, if I may ask?”
“Comprehension. - View Quote Details on What on earth prompted you to take a hand in…
All I know most surely about morality and obligations, I owe to football. - View Quote Details on All I know most surely about morality and obligations, I…
He who despairs over an event is a coward, but he who holds hope for the human condition is a fool. - View Quote Details on He who despairs over an event is a coward, but…
The unbeliever cannot keep from thinking that men who have set at the center of their faith the staggering victim of a judicial error ought at least to hesitate before committing legal murder. - View Quote Details on The unbeliever cannot keep from thinking that men who have…
In that daily effort in which intelligence mingle and delight each other, the absurd man discovers a discipline that will make up the greatest of his strengths. The required diligence and doggedness and lucidity thus resemble the conqueror’s attitude. To create is likewise to give a shape to one’s fate. For all these characters, their work defines them at least as much as it is defined by them. The actor taught us this: There is no frontier between being and appearing. - View Quote Details on In that daily effort in which intelligence mingle and delight…
Every ideology is contrary to human psychology. - View Quote Details on Every ideology is contrary to human psychology.
Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal. - View Quote Details on Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to…
The myth of unlimited production brings war in its train as inevitably as clouds announce a storm. - View Quote Details on The myth of unlimited production brings war in its train…
None among us is authorized to despair of a single man, except after his death, which transforms his life into destiny and then permits a definitive judgment. But pronouncing the definitive judgment before his death, decreeing the closing of accounts when the creditor is still alive, is no man’s right. On this limit, at least, whoever judges absolutely condemns himself absolutely. - View Quote Details on None among us is authorized to despair of a single…
There is scarcely any passion without struggle. - View Quote Details on There is scarcely any passion without struggle.
If the only significant history of human thought were to be written, it would have to be the history of its successive regrets and its impotences. - View Quote Details on If the only significant history of human thought were to…
The Empire supposes a negation and a certainty: the certainty of the infinite malleability of man and the negation of human nature. - View Quote Details on The Empire supposes a negation and a certainty: the certainty…
Every rebellion implies some kind of unity. - View Quote Details on Every rebellion implies some kind of unity.
“My field,” said Goethe, “is time.” That is indeed the absurd speech. What, in fact, is the Absurd Man? He who, without negating it, does nothing for the eternal. Not that nostalgia is foreign to him. But he prefers his courage and his reasoning. The first teaches him to live without appeal and to get along with what he has; the second informs him of his limits. Assured of his temporally limited freedom, of his revolt devoid of future, and of his mortal consciousness, he lives out his adventure within the span of his lifetime. - View Quote Details on “My field,” said Goethe, “is time.” That is indeed the…
Those who reject the agony of living and dying wish to dominate. - View Quote Details on Those who reject the agony of living and dying wish…
Even those who are fed up with morality ought to realize that it is better to suffer certain injustices than to commit them even in wars, and that such deeds do us more harm than a hundred underground forces on the enemy’s side. - View Quote Details on Even those who are fed up with morality ought to…
A character is never the author who created him. It is quite likely, however, that an author may be all his characters simultaneously. - View Quote Details on A character is never the author who created him. It…
A sub-clerk in the post office is the equal of a conqueror if consciousness is common to them. All experiences are indifferent in this regard. There are some that do either a service or a disservice to man. They do him a service if he is conscious. Otherwise, that has no importance: a man’s failures imply judgment, not of circumstances, but of himself. - View Quote Details on A sub-clerk in the post office is the equal of…
A living man can be enslaved and reduced to the historic condition of an object. But if he dies in refusing to be enslaved, he reaffirms the existence of another kind of human nature which refuses to be classified as an object. - View Quote Details on A living man can be enslaved and reduced to the…
The philosopher, even if he is Kant, is a creator. - View Quote Details on The philosopher, even if he is Kant, is a creator.
In the light, the earth remains our first and our last love. Our brothers are breathing under the same sky as we; justice is a living thing. Now is born that strange joy which helps one live and die, and which we shall never again postpone to a later time. On the sorrowing earth it is the unresting thorn, the bitter brew, the harsh wind off the sea, the old and the new dawn. - View Quote Details on In the light, the earth remains our first and our…
He tried to recall what he had read about the disease. Figures floated across his memory, and he recalled that some thirty or so great plagues known to history had accounted for nearly a hundred million deaths. But what are a hundred million deaths? When one has served in a war, one hardly knows what a dead man is, after a while. And since a dead man has no substance unless one actually sees him dead, a hundred million corpses broadcast through history are no more than a puff of smoke in the imagination. - View Quote Details on He tried to recall what he had read about the…
I should like to be able to love my country and still love justice. I don’t want just any greatness for it, particularly a greatness born of blood and falsehood. I want to keep it alive by keeping justice alive. - View Quote Details on I should like to be able to love my country…
Messianism, in order to exist, must construct a defense against the victims. - View Quote Details on Messianism, in order to exist, must construct a defense against…
After all, ironic philosophies produce passionate works. - View Quote Details on After all, ironic philosophies produce passionate works.
For twenty centuries the sum total of evil has not diminished in the world. - View Quote Details on For twenty centuries the sum total of evil has not…
When the imagination sleeps, words are emptied of their meaning: a deaf population absent-mindedly registers the condemnation of a man…. there is no other solution but to speak out and show the obscenity hidden under the verbal cloak. - View Quote Details on When the imagination sleeps, words are emptied of their meaning:…
From my first articles to my latest book I have written so much, and perhaps too much, only because I cannot keep from being drawn toward everyday life, toward those, whoever they may be, who are humiliated and debased. They need to hope, and if all keep silent or if they are given a choice between two kinds of humiliation, they will be forever deprived of hope and we with them. - View Quote Details on From my first articles to my latest book I have…
“Only the modern city,” Hegel dares to write, “offers the mind a field in which it can become aware of itself.” We are thus living in the period of big cities. Deliberately, the world has been amputated of all that constitutes its permanence: nature, the sea, hilltops, evening meditation. Consciousness is to be found only in the streets, because history is to be found only in the streets — this is the edict. - View Quote Details on “Only the modern city,” Hegel dares to write, “offers the…
Autumn is a second Spring when every leaf is a flower. - View Quote Details on Autumn is a second Spring when every leaf is a…
One recognizes one’s course by discovering the paths that stray from it. - View Quote Details on One recognizes one’s course by discovering the paths that stray…
If something worth living for is worth dying for, what about something not worth dying for? - View Quote Details on If something worth living for is worth dying for, what…
You will never be happy if you keep searching for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you keep looking for the meaning of life without living it. - View Quote Details on You will never be happy if you keep searching for…
The current motto for all of us can only be this: without giving up anything on the plane of justice, yield nothing on the plane of freedom. - View Quote Details on The current motto for all of us can only be…
Knowing whether or not one can live without appeal is all that interests me. - View Quote Details on Knowing whether or not one can live without appeal is…
Outside of that single fatality of death, everything, joy or happiness, is liberty. - View Quote Details on Outside of that single fatality of death, everything, joy or…
These paltry and essential belongings, these relative truths are the only ones to stir me. As for the others, the “ideal” truths, I have not enough soul to understand them. Not that one must be an animal, but I find no meaning in the happiness of angels. - View Quote Details on These paltry and essential belongings, these relative truths are the…
Hungary conquered and in chains has done more for freedom and justice than any people for twenty years. But for this lesson to get through and convince those in the West who shut their eyes and ears, it was necessary, and it can be no comfort to us, for the people of Hungary to shed so much blood which is already drying in our memories. In Europe’s isolation today, we have only one way of being true to Hungary, and that is never to betray, among ourselves and everywhere, what the Hungarian heroes died for, never to condone, among ourselves and everywhere, even indirectly, those who killed them. It would indeed be difficult for us to be worthy of such sacrifices. - View Quote Details on Hungary conquered and in chains has done more for freedom…
O light! This is the cry of all the characters of ancient drama brought face to face with their fate. This last resort was ours, too, and I knew it now. In the middle of winter I at last discovered that there was in me an invincible summer. - View Quote Details on O light! This is the cry of all the characters…
If the world were clear, art would not exist. - View Quote Details on If the world were clear, art would not exist.
Accepting the absurdity of everything around us is one step, a necessary experience: it should not become a dead end. It arouses a revolt that can become fruitful. - View Quote Details on Accepting the absurdity of everything around us is one step,…
In my case, I have always drawn my hope from the idea of fecundity. - View Quote Details on In my case, I have always drawn my hope from…
For men of today there is an inner way, which I know well from having taken it in both directions, leading from the spiritual hilltops to the capitals of crime. And doubtless one can always rest, fall asleep on the hilltop or board with crime. But if one forgoes a part of what is, one must forgo being oneself; one must forgo living or loving otherwise than by proxy. There is thus a will to live without rejecting anything of life, which is the virtue I honor most in this world. - View Quote Details on For men of today there is an inner way, which…
The greatest saving one can make in the order of thought is to accept the unintelligibility of the world — and to pay attention to man. - View Quote Details on The greatest saving one can make in the order of…
The triumph of the man who kills or tortures is marred by only one shadow: he is unable to feel that he is innocent. Thus, he must create guilt in his victim so that, in a world that has no direction, universal guilt will authorize no other course of action than the use of force and give its blessing to nothing but success. When the concept of innocence disappears from the mind of the innocent victim himself, the value of power establishes a definitive rule over a world in despair. - View Quote Details on The triumph of the man who kills or tortures is…
The absurd does not liberate; it binds. It does not authorize all actions. “Everything is permitted” does not mean that nothing is forbidden. - View Quote Details on The absurd does not liberate; it binds. It does not…
Live to the point of tears. - View Quote Details on Live to the point of tears.
Indeed, it is not so much identical conclusions that prove minds to be related as the contradictions that are common to them. - View Quote Details on Indeed, it is not so much identical conclusions that prove…
Aujourd’hui maman est morte. Ou peut-être hier, je ne sais pas. - View Quote Details on Aujourd’hui maman est morte. Ou peut-être hier, je ne sais…
The evil that is in the world always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence, if they lack understanding. On the whole men are more good than bad; that, however, isn’t the real point. But they are more or less ignorant, and it is this that we call vice or virtue; the most incorrigible vice being that of an ignorance which fancies it knows everything and therefore claims for itself the right to kill. There can be no true goodness, nor true love, without the utmost clear-sightedness. - View Quote Details on The evil that is in the world always comes of…
To be happy, we must not be too concerned with others. - View Quote Details on To be happy, we must not be too concerned with…
Charm is a way of getting the answer “Yes” without asking a clear question. - View Quote Details on Charm is a way of getting the answer “Yes” without…
But I have been sought out, as each individual has been sought out. Artists of the past could at least keep silent in the face of tyranny. The tyrannies of today are improved; they no longer admit of silence or neutrality. One has to take a stand, be either for or against. Well, in that case, I am against. - View Quote Details on But I have been sought out, as each individual has…
Life is this dichotomy itself, the mind soaring over volcanoes of light, the madness of justice, the extenuating intransigence of moderation. - View Quote Details on Life is this dichotomy itself, the mind soaring over volcanoes…
I do not want to found anything on the incomprehensible. I want to know whether I can live with what I know and with that alone. - View Quote Details on I do not want to found anything on the incomprehensible…
Beauty is unbearable, drives us to despair, offering us for a minute the glimpse of an eternity that we should like to stretch out over the whole of time. - View Quote Details on Beauty is unbearable, drives us to despair, offering us for…
Being able to remain on that dizzying crest — that is integrity and the rest is subterfuge. - View Quote Details on Being able to remain on that dizzying crest — that…