Albert Camus Quotes - 37 quotes

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Albert Camus

Albert Camus (1913-1960) was a French-Algerian philosopher, author, and journalist. He was born on November 7, 1913, in Mondovi, Algeria. He is best known for his contributions to the philosophy of absurdism, which explores the conflict between humans search for meaning and the indifferent universe... show more

quote icon When the soul suffers too much, it develops a taste for misfortune.

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quote icon Realize your own hypocrisy then you have the right to judge others

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quote icon Nostalgia is stronger here than knowledge...[Reason] is an instrument of thought and not thought itself. Above all, a man's thought is his nostalgia.

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quote icon This heart within me I can feel, and I judge that it exists. This world I can touch, and I likewise judge that it exists. There ends all my knowledge, and the rest is construction. (...) Forever I shall be a stranger to myself.

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quote icon If you help the blind, it is only to make yourself feel good. If you pretend to be humble, it was only so that you could stroke your own ego.

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quote icon In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.

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quote icon Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.

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quote icon Man is the only creature that refuses to be what he is.

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quote icon Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.

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quote icon The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.

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quote icon Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth.

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quote icon You continue making the gestures commanded by existence for many reasons, the first of which is habit.

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quote icon Don’t walk in front of me… I may not follow Don’t walk behind me… I may not lead Walk beside me… just be my friend

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quote icon On "the supreme summit," "virtue is its own reward". This summit is the only place he can live. He likes to feel above other people.

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quote icon when you have no character, he says, you need to have method.

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quote icon In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back.

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quote icon freedom is not a reward or a gift – rather, it is a chore, a "long-distance run." Freedom is solitary, and it is exhausting. Freedom is standing alone before the judges, and freedom ends with a court sentence. And that is why no one can bear it.This is why man chooses to be a slave. He chooses a master, and since God isn’t fashionable anymore, he has to find someone else to serve.

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quote icon We’re all so firmly convinced of our own innocence, that we would condemn the rest of the world to prove it. That’s why criminals are always grateful if you tell them that their crime was the result of unfortunate circumstance, not of some innate fault on their part.

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quote icon if you want a standard, socially acceptable job/home/family, then you’re going to be stripped of your real identity.

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quote icon when a man is tired he often thinks of himself as a prophet.

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quote icon The feeling of being in the right, he says, is a powerful motivator. It keeps men moving forward. But when you take it away, men become "dogs frothing with rage." A lot of crimes are committed because the perpetrator can’t bear to be wrong.

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quote icon You follow the rules, you pretend it’s life or death if you win or lose, but really, deep down, you know it’s just a game.

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quote icon proving innocence is impossible; on the other hand, we can most certainly state that everyone is guilty. Every man can testify to every other man’s guilt

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quote icon Jesus left us alone, to carry on by ourselves. Stuck in our own little-eases, we know everything Jesus knew, but we can’t bring ourselves to die the way he did.

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quote icon He can’t condemn others without judging himself first, so the idea is to heap judgments on himself in order to justify judging others. That’s why he’s a judge – someone who condemns others – but also a penitent, someone who recognizes and judges his own crimes.

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quote icon I see many people die because they judge that life is not worth living. I see others paradoxically getting killed for the ideas or illusions that give them a reason for living (what is called a reason for living is also an excellent reason for dying). I therefore conclude that the meaning of life is the most urgent of questions.

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quote icon It happens that the stage sets collapse. Rising, streetcar, four hours in the office or the factory, meal, streetcar, four hours of work, meal, sleep, and Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday and Saturday according to the same rhythm – this path is easily followed most of the time. But one day the “why” arises and everything begins in that weariness tinged with amazement.

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quote icon As in all religions, man is freed of the weight of his own life.

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quote icon A world that can be explained even with bad reasons is a familiar world. But, on the other hand, in a universe suddenly divested of illusions and lights, man feels an alien, a stranger. His exile is without remedy since he is deprived of the memory of a lost home or the hope of a promised land.

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quote icon We get into the habit of living before acquiring the habit of thinking.

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quote icon He decided to accept guilt, and live in the "little-ease." The little-ease was a type of prison cell used in the Middle Ages. One was thrown in and essentially forgotten. It was made of what Jean-Baptiste calls "ingenious dimensions," neither high enough to stand in nor wide enough to lie down. You had to live diagonally, in a squat, an awkward bending.

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quote icon Don't wait for the last judgement. It takes place every day.

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quote icon But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads?

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quote icon In the misdst of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.

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quote icon To know oneself, one should assert oneself.

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quote icon I know of only one duty, and that is to love.

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quote icon I know of only one duty, and that is to love.

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