Albert Camus Quotes
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Only he who is uncompromising as to his rights maintains the sense of duty.
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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 lived it another. I had done this and I hadn't done that. I hadn't done this thing and I had done another. And so?
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I'd buy myself a cabin on the beach, I'd put some glue in my navel, and I'd stick a flag in there. Then I'd wait to see which way the wind was blowing.
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Thus I progressed on the surface of life, in the realm of words as it were, never in reality. All those books barely read, those friends barely loved, those cities barely visited, those women barely possessed! I went through the gestures out of boredom or absent-mindedness. Then came human beings; they wanted to cling, but there was nothing to cling to, and that was unfortunate--for them. As for me, I forgot. I never remembered anything but myself.
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Against eternal injustice, man must assert justice, and to protest against the universe of grief, he must create happiness.
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In art, rebellion is consummated and perpetuated in the act of real creation, not in criticism or commentary.
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Truth, like light is dazzling. By contrast, untruth is a beautiful sunset that enhances everything.
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This is the century of fear.
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But, you know, I feel more fellowship with the defeated than with saints. Heroism and sanctity don't really appeal to me, I imagine. What interests me is being a man.
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Being is good, but getting rich is better.... If the gods had only the riches of men's adoration, they would be as poor as poor Caligula.
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Germany collapsed as a result of having engaged in a struggle for empire with the concepts of provincial politics.
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To create is likewise to give a shape to one's fate.
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It is always easy to be logical. It is almost impossible to be logical to the bitter end.
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Liberty is a choreand a long-distance race, quite solitary, quite exhausting.
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I cling like a miser to the freedom that disappears as soon as there is an excess of things.
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Obstinacy alone is not a virtue.
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Maybe she had become tired of being the girlfriend of a condemned man. It also occured to me that maybe she was sick, or dead. These things happen. Anyway, after that, remembering Marie meant nothing to me. That seemed perfectly normal to me, since I understood very well that people would forget me when I was dead.
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The absurd hero's refusal to hope becomes his singular ability to live in the present with passion.
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Thus, in a middle course between these heights and depths, they drifted through life rather than lived, the prey of aimless days and sterile memories, like wandering shadows that could have acquired substance only by consenting to root themselves in the solid earth of their distress.
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Give up the tyranny of female charm.
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Do you believe in God, doctor?" No - but what does that really mean? I'm fumbling in the dark, struggling to make something out. But I've long ceased finding that original.
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Freedom is not constituted primarily of privileges but of responsibilities.
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In that daily effort in which intelligence and passion 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.
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Why should it be essential to love rarely in order to love much?