Albert Camus Quotes

“Believe me, the hardest thing for a man to give up is that which he really doesn't want, after all.”

“The look of success, when it is worn a certain way, would infuriate a jackass.”

“In that night alive with signs and stars, I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world. Finding it so much like myself--like a brother, really--I felt that I had been happy and that I was happy again.”

“The absurd is essentially a divorce. It lies in neither of the elements compared; it is born of their confrontation.”

“Il y a dans les hommes plus de choses a' admirer que de choses a' me priser. There are more things to admire in people than to despise.”

“The first concern of any dictatorship is, consequently, to subjugate both labor and culture.”

“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.”

“Man is the only creature that refuses to be what he is.”

“Perhaps we cannot prevent this world from being a world in which children are tortured. But we can reduce the number of tortured children.”

“Every rebellion implies some kind of unity.”

“The Poor Man whom everyone speaks of, the Poor Man whom everyone pities, one of the repulsive Poor from whom charitable souls keep their distance, he has still said nothing. Or, rather, he has spoken through the voice of Victor Hugo, Zola, Richepin. At least, they said so. And these shameful impostures fed their authors. Cruel irony, the Poor Man tormented with hunger feeds those who plead his case.”

“Life continues, and some mornings, weary of the noise, discouraged by the prospect of the interminable work to keep after, sickened also by the madness of the world that leaps at you from the newspaper, finally convinced that I will not be equal to it and that I will disappoint everyone - all I want to do is sit down and wait for evening. This is what I feel like, and sometimes I yield to it.”

“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.”

“Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.”

“You will never be able to experience everything. So, please, do poetical justice to your soul and simply experience yourself.”

“In the world there is, parallel to the force of death and constraint, an enormous force of persuasion that is called culture.”

“As for those whose role it is to love us - I mean, relatives and in-laws (what a word)- It's a different tune. They find the right word, but it's usually the one that wounds.”

“Cruel irony, the poor man tormented with hunger feeds those who plead his case.”

“That's the way man is, cher monsieur. He has two faces: he can't love without self-love.”

“Psychology is action, not thinking about oneself.”

“Absolute freedom mocks at justice. Absolute justice denies freedom.”

“Every authentic work of art is a gift offered to the future.”

“I feel like getting married, or committing suicide, or subscribing to L'Illustration. Something desperate, you know.”

“Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better.”

“There always comes a time when one must choose between contemplation and action. This is called becoming a man.”