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Albert Camus

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Famous Albert Camus Quotes

“I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain. One always finds one's burden again. But Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks. He too concludes that all is well. This universe henceforth without a master seems to him neither sterile nor futile. Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of that night-filled mountain, in itself, forms a world. The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”

MenWorldWellsHeartEnoughSeemsFormNightUniverseTeachStruggleImagineFeetRocksMastersHigherMountainStonesRaisesFilledBurdenHeightAtomsFidelityMineralsFlakesSisyphusMyth Of Sisyphus
Author:Albert Camus
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“Every time I hear a political speech or I read those of our leaders, I am horrified at having, for years, heard nothing which sounded human. It is always the same words telling the same lies. And the fact that men accept this, that the people’s anger has not destroyed these hollow clowns, strikes me as proof that men attribute no importance to the way they are governed; that they gamble – yes, gamble – with a whole part of their life and their so called 'vital interests.”

PeopleMenWayYearsHumansWholeFactsPoliticalLyingInterestLeaderAcceptingHeardSpeechImportanceStrikesProofDestroyedAttributesClownHollowGamblePolitical Speeches
Book:Notebooks, 1935-1942
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“Ah cher ami, how poor in invention men are! They are They always think one commits suicide for a reason. But it's quite possible to commit suicide for two reasons. No, that never occurs to them. So what's the good of dying intentionally, of sacrificing yourself to the idea you want people to have of you? Once you are dead, they will take advantage of it to attribute idiotic or vulgar motives to your action. Martyrs, cher ami, must choose between being forgotten, mocked, or made use of. As for being understood--never!”

PeopleThinkingMenWantMadeTwoIdeasReasonUseActionPoorSacrificeDyingUnderstoodAdvantageSuicideForgottenInventionCommitMotiveAttributesVulgarMartyrIdioticSacrificing Yourself
Author:Albert Camus
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“But again and again there comes a time in history when the man who dares to say that two and two make four is punished with death. The schoolteacher is well aware of this. And the question is not one of knowing what punishment or reward attends the making of this calculation. The question is one of knowing whether two and two do make four”

MenWellsTwoKnowingFourRewardsDarePunishmentAgain And AgainCalculationsThere Comes A Time
Book:The Plague
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“Don't lies eventually lead to the truth? And don't all my stories, true or false, tend toward the same conclusion? Don't they all have the same meaning? So what does it matter whether they are true or false if, in both cases, they are significant of what I have been and what I am? Sometimes it is easier to see clearly into the liar than into the man who tells the truth. Truth, like light, blinds. Falsehood, on the contrary, is a beautiful twilight that enhances every object.”

IfsMenDoeHas BeensSometimesMatterStoriesLightBeautifulLyingCasesObjectsEasierContrarySignificantConclusionTelling The TruthLiarsTwilightFalsehoodDoes It MatterDon't LieTrue Or FalseI Don't Lie
Author:Albert Camus
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“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 that fancies it knows everything and therefore claims for itself the right to kill. The soul of the murderer is blind; and there can be no true goodness nor true love without the utmost clear-sightedness.”

KnowsMenRealSoulWholeVirtueClearIgnoranceGoodnessClaimsBlindVicesIgnorantFancyMurdererPlagueIncorrigible
Book:The Plague
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“The truth is that every intelligent man, as you know, dreams of being a gangster and of ruling over society by force alone. As it is not so easy as the detective novels might lead one to believe, one generally relies on politics and joins the cruelest party.What does it matter, after all, if by humiliating one's mind one succeeds in dominating every one? I discovered in myself sweet dreams of oppression.”

IfsKnowsMenMindBelieveDoeMatterDreamMightForceEasyPartyNovelSweetTruth IsSucceedIntelligentOppressionRelyRulingDetectivesGangstersHumiliatingDominatingIntelligent ManDoes It MatterSweet Dreams
Book:The fall
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“Great ideas, it has been said, come into the world as gently as doves. Perhaps then, if we listen attentively, we shall hear amid the uproar of empires and nations, a faint flutter of wings, the gentle stirring of life and hope. Some will say that this hope lies in a nation; others in a man. I believe rather that it is awakened, revived, nourished, by millions of solitary individuals whose and works every day negate frontiers and the crudest implications of history.”

IfsMenWorldBelieveHas BeensSaidIdeasLyingIndividualI BelieveNationsMillionsWingsGentleEmpiresSolitaryFrontiersImplicationsAwakenedGreat IdeaDoveStirring
Author:Albert Camus
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“In this respect, our townsfolk were like everybody else, wrapped up in themselves; in other words, they were humanists: they disbelieved in pestilences. A pestilence isn't a thing made to man's measure; therefore we tell ourselves that pestilence is a mere bogy of the mind, a bad dream that will pass away. But it doesn't always pass away and, from one bad dream to another, it is men who pass away, and the humanists first of all, because they have taken no precautions.”

MenMindFirstsMadeDreamTakenMerePassing AwayPrecautionPestilenceBad Dream
Book:Nobel Prize Library
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“Beginning to think is beginning to be undermined. Society has but little connection with such beginnings. The worm is in man's heart. That is where it must be sought. One must follow and understand this fatal game that leads from lucidity in the face of existence to flight from light.”

ThinkingMenHeartLittlesLightFacesGamesExistenceConnectionsFlightWormsLucidityMyth Of Sisyphus
Book:The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays
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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?”

KnowsMenDoeEndsBodyFacesDiesHeavenComedyArmsDepthServingVoidAdoreBetrayedFace To FaceEloquenceGhastlyKneeling
Author:Albert Camus
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