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Albert Camus

Albert Camus Quotes

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Famous Albert Camus Quotes

“When the throne of God is overturned, the rebel realizes that it is now his own responsibility to create the justice, order, and unity that he sought in vain within his own condition, and in this way to justify the fall of God. Then begins the desperate effort to create, at the price of crime and murder if necessary, the dominion of man.”

IfsMenWayOrderFallRealizingJusticeEffortResponsibilityConditionsCrimeMurderUnityVainDesperateJustifyRebelThronesDominion
Book:The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt
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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.”

KnowsWayShouldIntellectualDignityWestPermanentGuidanceProtestSolitarySigningEfficacyUnderminingBlackmail
Book:Resistance, Rebellion, and Death: Essays
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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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“…. Query: How contrive not to waste one's time? Answer: By being fully aware of it all the while. Ways in which this can be done: By spending one's days on an uneasy chair in a dentist's waiting-room; by remaining on one's balcony all of a Sunday afternoon; by listening to lectures in a language on doesn't know; by traveling by the longest and least-convenient train routes, and of course standing all the way; by lining up at the box-office of theaters and then not buying a seat; and so forth.”

KnowsWayDoneCoursesLanguageWaitingAnswersRoomsListeningOfficeWasteStandingTheaterTrainBoxesSpendingSeatsBuyingChairsSundayAfternoonRoutesLecturesConvenientDentistUneasyBox OfficeBalconiesWaiting RoomsQueriesSunday AfternoonsLining Up
Book:The Plague
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“Yes, I know what passion would fill me with all its power. Before, I was too young. I got in the way. Now I know that acting and loving and suffering is living, of course, but it’s only living insofar as you can be transparent and accept your fate, like the unique reflection of a rainbow of joys and passions which is the same for everyone.”

KnowsWayYoungJoySufferingPassionCoursesActingAcceptingFateUniqueReflectionRainbowTransparent
Book:Happy Death
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“At that moment he knew what his mother was thinking, and that she loved him. But he knew, too, that to love someone means relatively little; or, rather, that love is never strong enough to find the words befitting it. Thus he and his mother would always love each other silently. And one day she--or he--would die, without ever, all their lives long, having gone farther than this by way of making their affection known.”

ThinkingWayMeanLittlesLongEnoughMomentsMotherDiesStrongLove IsKnownGoneOne DayAffectionThat MomentStrong EnoughLong LifeLove SomeoneLove Each Other
Book:The Plague
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“Believe me there is no such thing as great suffering, great regret, great memory....everything is forgotten, even a great love. That's what's sad about life, and also what's wonderful about it. There is only a way of looking at things, a way that comes to you every once in a while. That's why it's good to have had love in your life after all, to have had an unhappy passion- it gives you an alibi for the vague despairs we all suffer from.”

WayGivingBelieveSufferingPassionMemoriesWonderfulRegretDespairForgottenUnhappyBelieve In MeVagueGreat LoveGreat Memories
Book:Happy Death
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“Many fledgling moralists in those days were going about our town proclaiming there was nothing to be done about it and we should bow to the inevitable. And Tarrou, Rieux, and their friends might give one answer or another, but its conclusion was always the same, their certitude that a fight must be put up, in this way or that, and there must be no bowing down... There was nothing admirable about this attitude; it was merely logical.”

WayGivingShouldDoneMightFightingAnswersAttitudeTownsConclusionInevitableLogicalBowsAdmirableMoralistProclaimingCertitudeOur TownFledglingsBowing Down
Book:The plague: translated from the French
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