Albert Camus Quotes
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The principle can be established that for a man who does not cheat what he believes to be true must determine his actions.
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Truth and freedom, having few lovers, are demanding mistresses.
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A person I knew used to divide human beings into three categories: those who prefer to have nothing to hide rather than being obliged to lie, those who prefer lying to having nothing to hide, and finally those who like both lying and the hidden.
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For instance, I never complained that my birthday was overlooked; people were even surprised, with a touch of admiration, by my discretion on this subject. But the reason for my disinterestedness was even more discreet: I longed to be forgotten in order to be able to complain to myself... Once my solitude was thoroughly proved, I could surrender to the charms of a virile self-pity.
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Intelligence in chains loses in lucidity what it gains in intensity.
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My profession lent itself nicely to my vocation for heights. It freed me of any bitterness towards my fellow men, who were alwaysin my debt, without my owing them anything. It placed me above the judge whom, I in turn judged, above the defendant whom I forced into gratitude.
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There is always a philosophy for lack of courage.
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Indeed, men never know how to love. nothing satisfies them. All they know is to dream, to imagine new duties, to look for new countries and new homes. While we women, we know that we must hasten to love, to share the same bed, hold hands, and fear absence. When we women love, we dream of nothing.
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This very heart which is mine will forever remain indefinable to me. Between the certainty I have of my existence and the content I try to give to that assurance, the gap will never be filled. Forever I shall be a stranger to myself.
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As a remedy to life in society I would suggest the big city. Nowadays, it is the only desert within our means.
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Happiness is generous. It does not subsist on destruction.
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I know that man is capable of great deeds. But if he isn't capable of great emotion, well, he leaves me cold.
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The sense of doing good , the satisfaction of being right, the joy of looking favorably upon oneself, dear sir, are powerful levers for keeping us upright and making us progress. On the other hand, if men are deprived of that feeling, they are changed into rabid dogs.
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But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads?
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I was comfortable in all, I admit, but at the same time, nothing satisfied me. Each joy made me seek another.
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In the past, the poverty they shared had a certain sweetness about it. When the end of the day came and they would eat their dinner in silence with the oil lamp between them, there was a secret joy in such simplicity, such retrenchment.
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In the end, we would like not to be guilty while at the same time being dispensed of the effort of purifying ourselves. Not enough cynicism and not enough virtue.
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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.
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You know, women do not really condemn any weakness: rather, they try to humiliate or disarm our strengths. That is why women arethe reward, not of the warrior, but of the criminal.
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What I believe to be true I must therefore preserve. What seems to me so obvious, even against me, I must support.
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Psychology is action, not thinking about oneself. We continue to shape our personality all our life. To know oneself, one should assert oneself.
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Empires and churches are born under the sun of death.
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On certain mornings, as we turn a corner, an exquisite dew falls on our heart and then vanishes. But the freshness lingers, and this, always, is what the heart needs. The earth must have risen in just such a light the morning the world was born.
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A lot of jobs don't allow you to be who you are. There is dignity in work only when it is work freely accepted.