95+ Albert Camus Quotes
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Albert Camus was a French Philosopher, author, journalist, and dramatist.
He studied Philosophy at the University of Algiers. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in the field of literature when he was only 44 years old.
His works include 'The Stranger', 'The Plague', 'The Fall', 'The Rebel', and 'The Myth Of Sisyphus'. Below are some of the best Albert Camus quotes to help you understand yourself. These Albert Camus quotes help you learn about everything, starting from the street corner to real generosity.
Best Albert Camus Quotes
Read this collection of the best Albert Camus quotes that can help you gain more courage and understand the essential concept of life.
“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.”
- Jan, 'The Misunderstanding', 1942.
“But in the end, one needs more courage to live than to kill himself.”
-'Suicide As An Act Of Cowardice'.
“Do not wait for the last judgment. It comes every day.”
“Every act of rebellion expresses a nostalgia for innocence and an appeal to the essence of being.”
- 'The Rebel'.
"Have you no hope at all? And do you really live with the thought that when you die, you die, and nothing remains? 'Yes', I said."
- Meursault, 'The Stanger'.
“I had only a little time left and I didn't want to waste it on God.”
― 'L'Étranger'.
“I have no idea what's awaiting me, or what will happen when this all ends. For the moment I know this: there are sick people and they need curing.”
― 'The Plague'.
“I may not have been sure about what really did interest me, but I was absolutely sure about what didn't.”
― 'The Stranger'.
“I used to advertise my loyalty and I don't believe there is a single person I loved that I didn't eventually betray.”
― 'The Fall'.
“I would rather live my life as if there is a god and die to find out there isn't, than live my life as if there isn't and die to find out there is.”
- 'The Myth Of Sisyphus And Other Essays'.
“It is a kind of spiritual snobbery that makes people think they can be happy without money.”
“It is the job of thinking people not to be on the side of the executioners.”
-'Neither Victims Nor Executioners'.
“Life can be magnificent and overwhelming - that is the whole tragedy. Without beauty, love, or danger it would almost be easy to live. ”
-'Lyrical And Critical Essays'.
“People hasten to judge in order not to be judged themselves.”
-'The Fall'.
“Real generosity towards the future lies in giving all to the present.”
-'Notebooks (1935-1942)'.
“Since we're all going to die, it's obvious that when and how don't matter.”
-'The Stranger'.
“The literal meaning of life is whatever you're doing that prevents you from killing yourself.”
“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”
“The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself.”
“What is a rebel? A man who says no.”
-'The Rebel', Chapter One, 1951.
“When I look at my life and its secret colors, I feel like bursting into tears.”
-'A Happy Death'.
“When the soul suffers too much, it develops a taste for misfortune.”
-'The First Man'
“You know what charm is: a way of getting the answer yes without having asked any clear question.”
-'The Fall'.
“There is no sun without shadow, and it is essential to know the night.”
- 'The Myth Of Sisyphus And Other Essays'.
“Live to the point of tears.”
Albert Camus Quotes On Love
These Albert Camus quotes on love are about the battle of two people with respect to something that is absolutely free - love.
“Love is the type of disease that spares neither the intelligent nor the idiotic.”
“A loveless world is a dead world.”
-'The Plague'.
“After another moment's silence, she mumbled that I was peculiar, that that was probably why she loved me but that one day I might disgust her for the very same reason.”
-'The Stranger'.
“Beauty is unbearable, drives us to despair, offering us for a minute the glimpse of an eternity that we should like to stretch out over the whole of time.”
-'Carnets', 1935-1942.
"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."
“For there is merely bad luck in not being loved; there is misfortune in not loving”.
- 'The Myth of Sisyphus And Other Essays', p.201.
“Have pity, Lord, on those who love and are separated”.
“I conceived at least one great love in my life, of which I was always the object”.
-'The Fall', p.58.
“I know of only one duty, and that is to love”.
“Indeed, men never know how to love. nothing satisfies them. All they know is to dream, to imagine new duties, to look for new countries and new homes. While we women, we know that we must hasten to love, to share the same bed, hold hands, and fear absence. When we women love, we dream of nothing”.
“Love is the kind of illness that does not spare the intelligent or the dull”.
“Man is an idea, and a precious small idea once he turns his back on love.”
-'The Plague'.
“My chief occupation, despite appearances, has always been love”.
-'Notebooks', 1942-1951
“People don't love each other at our age, Marthe—they please each other, that's all. Later on, when you're old and impotent, you can love someone. At our age, you just think you do. That's all it is.”
-'A Happy Death'.
“At the heart of all beauty lies something inhuman.”
-'The Myth Of Sisyphus And Other Essays', p.14.
“Some cry: 'Love me!!' Others: 'Don't love me!!' But a certain genus, the worst and most unhappy, cries: 'Don't love me and be faithful to me!!'
-'The Fall, & Exile and the kingdom'.
“That is love, to give away everything, to sacrifice everything, without the slightest desire to get anything in return”.
“The act of love . . . is a confession. Selfishness screams aloud, vanity shows off, or else true generosity reveals itself”.
-'The Fall'.
“The desire for possession is insatiable, to such a point that it can survive even love itself. To love, therefore, is to sterilize the person one loves”.
-'The Rebel'.
“There is no love of life without despair of life.”
-'Lyrical and Critical Essays'.
“Thinking of the future, establishing aims for oneself, having preferences—all this presupposes a belief in freedom, even if one occasionally ascertains that one doesn’t feel it.”
-'The Myth Of Sisyphus And Other Essays', p.57.
“To abandon oneself to principles is really to die - and to die for an impossible love which is the contrary of love”.
-'The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt', p.129.
“We always deceive ourselves twice about the people we love - first to their advantage, then to their disadvantage”.
-'A Happy Death'.
Albert Camus Quotes On Happiness
A happy face is where the beauty lies. Here are some Albert Camus quotes on happiness, real generosity, and quality time. Read these Albert Camus quotes to be happy from within.
“There are two types of happiness and I have chosen that of the murderers. For I am happy. There was a time when I thought I had reached the limit of distress. Beyond that limit, there is sterile and magnificent happiness.”
“A man wants to earn money in order to be happy, and his whole effort and the best of a life are devoted to the earning of that money. Happiness is forgotten; the means are taken for the end.”
“All men have a sweetness in their life. That is what helps them go on. It is towards that they turn when they feel too worn out.”
“But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads?”
-'Lyrical and Critical Essays'.
“Find your happiness in yourself.”
-'A Happy Death'.
“For the first time, the first, I laid my heart open to the benign indifference of the universe. To feel it so like myself, indeed so brotherly, made me realize that I'd been happy, and that I was happy still.”
“Happiness and the absurd are two sons of the same earth. They are inseparable.”
-'The Myth Of Sisyphus And Other Essays'.
“Happiness implied a choice, and within that choice a concerted will, a lucid desire.”
-'A Happy Death'.
“Happiness is generous. It does not subsist on destruction.”
“Happiness is not everything and men have their duties. Mine is to find my mother, a homeland.”
“I enjoyed my own nature to the fullest, and we all know there lies happiness, although, to soothe one another mutually, we occasionally pretend to condemn such joys as selfishness.”
“Only it takes time to be happy. A lot of time. Happiness, too, is a long patience.”
-'A Happy Death'.
“The Four Conditions of Happiness: Life in the open air, Love for another being, Freedom from ambition, Creation.”
“There are some individuals who have too strong a craving, a will, and a nostalgia for happiness ever to reach it. They always retain a bitter and passionate aftertaste, and that's the best they can hope for.”
“To be happy, we must not be too concerned with others.”
-'The Fall'.
“When you have once seen the glow of happiness on the face of a beloved person, you know that a man can have no vocation but to awaken that light on the faces surrounding him. In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.”
“You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of."
-'Youthful Writings'.
“You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life."
-'Youthful Writings'.
"Your successes and happiness are forgiven you only if you generously consent to share them."
-'The Fall'.
“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.”
Thought-Provoking Albert Camus Quotes
Learn more about how truth can give you tremendous energy and more about the act of rebellion. Here are some Albert Camus quotes on absurdity and truth. These Albert Camus quotes on truth will help you to stay righteous and motivated.
“In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion."
- 'The Myth Of Sisyphus And Other Essays'.
“A man devoid of hope and conscious of being so has ceased to belong to the future.” “A man is more a man through the things he keeps to himself than through those he says.”
-'The Myth Of Sisyphus And Other Essays'.
“Always go too far, because that’s where you’ll find the truth.”
“Blessed are the hearts that can bend; they shall never be broken.”
“I continue to believe that this world has no ultimate meaning. But I know that something in it has a meaning and that is man because he is the only creature to insist on having one.”
-'Resistance, Rebellion and Death: Essays'.
“I do not believe in God and I am not an atheist.”
-'Notebooks 1951-1959'.
“I know that man is capable of great deeds. But if he isn’t capable of great emotion, well, he leaves me cold.”
-'The Plague'.
“If absolute truth belongs to anyone in this world, it certainly does not belong to the man or party that claims to possess it.”
“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.”
“In the world, there is, parallel to the force of death and constraint, an enormous force of persuasion that is called culture.”
-'Notebooks 1951-1959'.
“Like great works, deep feelings always mean more than they are conscious of saying.”
-'The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays'.
“Man cannot do without beauty, and this is what our era pretends to want to disregard.”
-'The Myth Of Sisyphus And Other Essays'.
“Man is always prey to his truths. Once he has admitted them, he cannot free himself from them.”
-'The Myth Of Sisyphus And Other Essays'.
“Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is.”
-'The Rebel', 1951.
“No matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back.”
-'The Stranger'.
“Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.”
“Seeking what is true is not seeking what is desirable.”
-'The Myth Of Sisyphus And Other Essays'.
“The absurd does not liberate; it binds. It does not authorize all actions. "Everything is permitted" does not mean that nothing is forbidden.”
-'The Myth Of Sisyphus And Other Essays'.
“The evil that is in the world almost always comes from ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence if they lack understanding.”
“The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”
-'The Myth Of Sisyphus And Other Essays'.
“There can be no question of holding forth on ethics. I have seen people behave badly with great morality and I note every day that integrity has no need of rules”.
-'The Myth Of Sisyphus And Other Essays'.
“Thinking is learning all over again how to see, directing one's consciousness, making of every image a privileged place.”
-'The Myth Of Sisyphus And Other Essays'.
“We all carry within us places of exile, our crimes, our ravages. Our task is not to unleash them on the world; it is to transform them in ourselves and others.”
“What is called a reason for living is also an excellent reason for dying.”
-'The Myth Of Sisyphus And Other Essays'.
“Without culture, and the relative freedom it implies, society, even when perfect, is but a jungle. This is why any authentic creation is a gift to the future.”
-'The Myth Of Sisyphus And Other Essays'.
“An intellectual? Yes. And never deny it. An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself. I like this, because I am happy to be both halves, the watcher and the watched. "Can they be brought together?" This is a practical question. We must get down to it. "I despise intelligence" really means: "I cannot bear my doubts.”
“Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth.”
“I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world.”
-'The Stranger'.
“O light! This is the cry of all the characters of ancient drama brought face to face with their fate. This last resort was ours, too, and I knew it now. In the middle of winter, I, at last, discovered that there was in me an invincible summer.”
-'Return To Tipasa', 1954.
“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.”
-'The Myth Of Sisyphus And Other Essays'.
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Bachelor of Science specializing in Human Anatomy
Joan AgieBachelor of Science specializing in Human Anatomy
With 3+ years of research and content writing experience across several niches, especially on education, technology, and business topics. Joan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Human Anatomy from the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria, and has worked as a researcher and writer for organizations across Nigeria, the US, the UK, and Germany. Joan enjoys meditation, watching movies, and learning new languages in her free time.
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