The world in which we were called to exist was an absurd world, and there was no other in which we could take refuge. – Albert Camus
Our civilization survives in the complacency of cowardly or malignant minds — a sacrifice to the vanity of aging adolescents. In 1953, excess is always a comfort, and sometimes a career. – Albert Camus
The real passion of the twentieth century is servitude. – Albert Camus
The world is never quiet, even its silence eternally resounds with the same notes, in vibrations which escape our ears. As for those that we perceive, they carry sounds to us, occasionally a chord, never a melody. – Albert Camus
Martyrs, my friend, have to choose between being forgotten, mocked or used. As for being understood — never. – Albert Camus
It is a well-known fact that we always recognize our homeland when we are about to lose it. – Albert Camus
We come into the world laden with the weight of an infinite necessity. – Albert Camus
To live is to hurt others, and through others, to hurt oneself. Cruel earth! How can we manage not to touch anything? To find what ultimate exile? – Albert Camus
Methods of thought which claim to give the lead to our world in the name of revolution have become, in reality, ideologies of consent and not of rebellion. – Albert Camus
Whoever today speaks of human existence in terms of power, efficiency, and historical tasks is an actual or potential assassin. – Albert Camus
Alas after a certain age, every man is responsible for his own face. – Albert Camus
God put self-pity by the side of despair like the cure by the side of the disease. – Albert Camus
At any street corner the feeling of absurdity can strike any man in the face. – Albert Camus
We are not certain, we are never certain. If we were we could reach some conclusions, and we could, at last, make others take us seriously. – Albert Camus
Only a philosophy of eternity, in the world today, could justify non-violence. – Albert Camus
If Christianity is pessimistic as to man, it is optimistic as to human destiny. Well, I can say that, pessimistic as to human destiny, I am optimistic as to man. – Albert Camus
The innocent is the person who explains nothing. – Albert Camus
Instead of killing and dying in order to produce the being that we are not, we have to live and let live in order to create what we are. – Albert Camus
One leader, one people, signifies one master and millions of slaves. – Albert Camus
As usual I finish the day before the sea, sumptuous this evening beneath the moon, which writes Arab symbols with phosphorescent streaks on the slow swells. There is no end to the sky and the waters. How well they accompany sadness! – Albert Camus
