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 Rebel: An Essay On Man In Revolt, 1951
Author · 45 quotes
Albert Camus was a French philosopher, author, and journalist known for his existentialist works, including "The Stranger" and "The Myth of Sisyphus." He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957 for his contribution to literature, providing insight into the human condition and the search for meaning in an indifferent world.
1913–1960·lived 46 years
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 Rebel: An Essay On Man In Revolt, 1951
To be happy, we must not be too concerned with others.
A life, whose purpose is money, is death.
As for myself, I had a lot to say. But I was silent.
Don’t wait for the Last Judgment. It takes place every day.
I was looked at, but I wasn't seen.
After awhile you could get used to anything.
Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is.
The realization that life is absurd cannot be an end, but only a beginning.
Should I kill myself, or have a cup of coffee?
Don’t walk in front of me… I may not followDon’t walk behind me… I may not leadWalk beside me… just be my friend
It is a kind of spiritual snobbery that makes people think they can be happy without money.The Myth of Sisyphus, 1942
The only real progress lies in learning to be wrong all alone.The Rebel, p. 23, 1951
Without work, all life goes rotten. But when work is soulless, life stifles and dies.The Myth of Sisyphus, p. 28, 1942
Truth is mysterious, elusive, always to be conquered. Liberty is dangerous, as hard to live with as it is elating. We must march toward these two goals, painfully but resolutely, certain in advance of our failings on so long a road.The Rebel, p. 45, 1951
A taste for truth at any cost is a passion which spares nothing.The Rebel, p. 23, 1951
Nothing is more despicable than respect based on fear.The Rebel, p. 25, 1951
Integrity has no need of rules.The Absurd Man, The Myth of Sisyphus, 1942
An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself.Carnets, 1935-42 (Notebooks, 1962) p. 41
Alas, after a certain age every man is responsible for his face.
A man's work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first opened.Lyrical and critical, ed. Hamish Hamilton Ltd, 1967
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.Notebooks 1935-1942
When you have really exhausted an experience you always reverence and love it.
To know oneself, one should assert oneself.Notebooks 1935-1942
In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.Return to Tipasa, p. 100, 1960
You cannot create experience. You must undergo it.The Myth of Sisyphus, 1942
You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.The Socratic Method, 2023
I don't want to be a genius. I have enough problems just trying to be a man.Lyrical and Critical Essays, 1945
The literal meaning of life is whatever you're doing that prevents you from killing yourself.The Myth of Sisyphus, 1942
The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself.Nobel Lecture, 1957
Always go too far, because that's where you'll find the truth.
Life is a sum of all your choices. So, what are you doing today?
In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.Return to Tipasa, 1951
People hasten to judge in order not to be judged themselves.The Fall, p. 87, 1956
Sometimes, carrying on, just carrying on, is the superhuman achievement.The Fall, 1956
An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself. I am happy to be both halves, the watcher and the watched.Notebooks, 1935-1942
Blessed are the hearts that can bend; they shall never be broken.The Fall, p. 87, 1956
It requires less mental effort to condemn than to think.Anarchism and Other Essays, p. 191, 1910
Those who lack the courage will always find a philosophy to justify it.The Socratic Method, 2023
When the soul suffers too much, it develops a taste for misfortune.The First Man, p. 296, 1995
The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a human heart. One must imagine that Sisyphus is happy.The Myth of Sisyphus, 1942
Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.Notebook IV, Notebooks: 1942-1951
The opposite of an idealist is too often a man without love.A Happy Death, p. 133, 1971
Seeking what is true is not seeking what is desirable.The Myth of Sisyphus, p. 27, 1942
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, Part II, Chapter 9, p. 135, 1947
That’s all 45 quotes by Albert Camus.