Albert Camus Quotes
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What more ghastly image can be called up than that of a man betrayed by his body who, simply because he did not die in time, lives out the comedy while awaiting the end, face to face with that God he does not adore, serving him as he served life, kneeling before a void and arms outstretched toward a heaven without eloquence that he knows to be also without depth?
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The mistake that men make is that they do not believe in theater. Otherwise, they would know that every man is allowed to play thecelestial tragedies and to become god. All he has to do is harden his heart.
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At the heart of all beauty lies something inhuman.
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So all a man could win in the conflict between plague and life was knowledge and memories.
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It should be pointed out for our own guidance in the West that the continual signing of manifestoes and protests is one of the surest ways of undermining the efficacy and dignity of the intellectual. There exists a permanent blackmail that we all know and that we must have the often solitary courage to resist.
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A true masterpiece does not tell everything.
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Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday; I can't be sure.
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Generally, I like all islands. There, it is easier to rule.
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Madness such as this, its like trying to stop a fire with the moisture from a kiss.
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Proof is never definitive, after all; one has to begin again with each new person.
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False judges are held up in the world's admiration and I alone know the true ones.
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I explained to him, however, that my nature was such that my physical needs often got in the way of my feelings.
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As for Hitler, his professed religion unhesitatingly juxtaposed the God-Providence and Valhalla. Actually his god was an argument at a political meeting and a manner of reaching an impressive climax at the end of speeches.
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Imagination offers people consolation for what they cannot be, and humor for what they actually are.
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In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion; in order to serve others better, one has to hold them at a distance for a time. But where can one find the solitude necessary to vigor, the deep breath in which the mind collects itself and courage gauges its strength? There remain big cities.
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Every man, and for stronger reasons, every artist, wants to be recognized. So do I.
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The first progressive step for a mind overwhelmed by the strangeness of things is to realize that this feeling of strangeness is shared with all men and that human reality, in its entirety, suffers from the distance which separates it from the rest of the universe.
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Camus himself described this work as 'an attempt to understand the time I live in'.
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The only serious question in life is whether to kill yourself or not.
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You know very well that I no longer think. I am far too intelligent for that.