Albert Camus Quotes - Page 18

• He had been bored, that's all, bored like most people. Hence he had made himself out of whole cloth a life full of complications and drama. Something must happen - and that explains most human commitments. Something must happen, even loveless slavery, even war or death. Hurray then for funerals!

  Albert Camus

  War, Drama, Commitment

  Albert Camus (2012). “The Fall”, p.37, Vintage

  7 Copy quote

• We must stitch up what has been torn apart, render justice imaginable in the world which is so obviously unjust, make happiness meaningful for nations poisoned by the misery of this century. Naturally, it is a superhuman task. But tasks are called superhuman when men take a long time to complete them, that is all.

  Albert Camus

  Meaningful, Hope, Men

  Albert Camus (1967). “Lyrical and critical”, Hamish Hamilton Ltd

  7 Copy quote

• You must have a love, a great love, to ensure an alibi at unjustified despairs that conquer all of us

  Albert Camus

  Great Love, Despair, Conquer

  5 Copy quote

• I felt as I hadn't felt for ages. I had a foolish desire to burst into tears. for the first time I'd realized how all these people loathed me.

  Albert Camus

  People, Tears, Age

  Albert Camus (1960). “Collected fiction”

  8 Copy quote

• 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.

  Albert Camus

  Warrior, Men, Trying

  6 Copy quote

• All healthy men have thought of their own suicide

  Albert Camus

  Suicide, Health, Men

  24 Copy quote

• The most loathsome materialism is not the kind people usually think of, but the sort that attempts to let dead ideas pass for living realities, diverting into sterile myths the stubborn and lucid attention we give to what we have within us that must forever die.

  Albert Camus

  Reality, Thinking, Ideas

  Albert Camus (2012). “Lyrical and Critical Essays”, p.98, Vintage

  23 Copy quote

• You know, a man always judges himself by the balance he can strike between the needs of his body and the demands of his mind. You're judging yourself now, Mersaut, and you don't like the sentence.

  Albert Camus

  Men, Judging Yourself, Mind

  Albert Camus (2012). “Happy Death”, p.36, Vintage

  15 Copy quote

• In a world that has ceased to believe in sin, the artist is responsible for the preaching.

  Albert Camus

  Believe, Artist, World

  Albert Camus (1965). “Notebooks, 1942-1951”

  7 Copy quote

• Today we are always as ready to judge as we are to fornicate.

  Albert Camus

  Judging, Today, Ready

  Albert Camus (1964). “The fall, & Exile and the kingdom”, Random House Inc

  6 Copy quote

• The best are led to make greater demands upon themselves. As for those who succumb, they did not deserve to survive.

  Albert Camus

  Demand, Greater, Deserve

  Albert Camus (2012). “The Myth of Sisyphus: And Other Essays”, p.100, Vintage

  7 Copy quote

• If, after all, men cannot always make history have a meaning, they can always act so that their own lives have one.

  Albert Camus

  Life, Time, Men

  Albert Camus (2012). “Resistance, Rebellion, and Death: Essays”, p.106, Vintage

  13 Copy quote

• I was assailed by memories of a life that wasn't mine anymore, but one in which I'd found the simplest and most lasting joys.

  Albert Camus

  Memories, Joy, Stranger

  "The Stranger". Book by Albert Camus, 1942.

  12 Copy quote

• For if I try to seize this self of which I feel sure, if I try to define and to summarize it, it is nothing but water slipping through my fingers.

  Albert Camus

  Self, Water, Trying

  Albert Camus (2012). “The Myth of Sisyphus: And Other Essays”, p.19, Vintage

  11 Copy quote

• Europe has lived on its contradictions, flourished on its differences, and, constantly transcending itself thereby, has created a civilization on which the whole world depends even when rejecting it. This is why I do not believe in a Europe unified under the weight of an ideology or of a technocracy that overlooked these differences.

  Albert Camus

  Believe, Europe, Civilization

  Albert Camus (2012). “Resistance, Rebellion, and Death: Essays”, p.243, Vintage

  17 Copy quote

• After all manner of professors have done their best for us, the place we are to get knowledge is in books. The true university of these days is a collection of books.

  Albert Camus

  Teacher, Retirement, Book

  9 Copy quote

• Men are convinced of your arguments, your sincerity, and the seriousness of your efforts only by your death.

  Albert Camus

  Death, Men, Effort

  9 Copy quote

• Any country where I am not bored is a country that teaches me nothing.

  Albert Camus

  Country, Travel, Boredom

  Albert Camus (2012). “Lyrical and Critical Essays”, p.43, Vintage

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  Albert Camus

  Self, Order, People

  Albert Camus (2012). “The Fall”, p.85, Vintage

  7 Copy quote

• My chief occupation, despite appearances, has always been love.

  Albert Camus

  Love, Life, Occupation

  Albert Camus (1965). “Notebooks, 1942-1951”

  8 Copy quote

• At the heart of all beauty lies something inhuman.

  Albert Camus

  Life, Beauty, Lying

  Albert Camus (2012). “The Myth of Sisyphus: And Other Essays”, p.14, Vintage

  56 Copy quote

• Obstinacy alone is not a virtue.

  Albert Camus

  Virtue, Obstinacy

  Albert Camus (2012). “Resistance, Rebellion, and Death: Essays”, p.99, Vintage

  7 Copy quote

• I can negate everything of that part of me that lives on vague nostalgias, except this desire for unity, this longing to solve, this need for clarity and cohesion. I can refute everything in this world surrounding me that offends or enraptures me, except this chaos, this sovereign chance and this divine equivalence which springs from anarchy. I don't know whether this world has meaning that transcends it. But I know that I do not know that meaning and that it is impossible for me just now to know it. What can a meaning outside my condition mean to me? I can understand only in human terms.

  Albert Camus

  Spring, Mean, Unity

  Albert Camus (1955). “The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays”

  10 Copy quote

• Life can be magnificent and overwhelming -- that is the whole tragedy. Without beauty, love, or danger it would almost be easy to live.

  Albert Camus

  Life, Tragedy, Easy

  Albert Camus (2012). “Lyrical and Critical Essays”, p.201, Vintage

  8 Copy quote

• I sometimes need to write things which I cannot completely control but which therefore prove that what is in me is stronger than I am.

  Albert Camus

  Writing, Stronger, Needs

  Albert Camus (1963). “Carnets: 1935-1942”

  9 Copy quote

You May Also Like:

Jean-Paul Sartre

Franz Kafka

Marguerite Duras

Friedrich Nietzsche

Simone de Beauvoir

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Marcel Proust

Soren Kierkegaard