Quotes By 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.

The modern mind is in complete disarray. Knowledge has stretched itself to the point where neither the world nor our intelligence can find any foot-hold. It is a fact that we are suffering from nihilism.

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.

The absurd is the essential concept and the first truth.

You cannot create experience. You must undergo it.

The society based on production is only productive, not creative.

We rarely confide in those who are better than we are.

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

One leader, one people, signifies one master and millions of slaves.

After all, every murderer when he kills runs the risk of the most dreadful of deaths, whereas those who kill him risk nothing except promotion.

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.

Charm is a way of getting the answer yes without asking a clear question.

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.

Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better.

We call first truths those we discover after all the others.

Only a philosophy of eternity, in the world today, could justify non-violence.

We used to wonder where war lived, what it was that made it so vile. And now we realize that we know where it lives... inside ourselves.

The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.

Ah, mon cher, for anyone who is alone, without God and without a master, the weight of days is dreadful.

Your successes and happiness are forgiven you only if you generously consent to share them.

Those who lack the courage will always find a philosophy to justify it.

We get into the habit of living before acquiring the habit of thinking. In that race which daily hastens us towards death, the body maintains its irreparable lead.

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.

Every man needs slaves like he needs clean air. To rule is to breathe, is it not? And even the most disenfranchised get to breathe. The lowest on the social scale have their spouses or their children.

Truly fertile Music, the only kind that will move us, that we shall truly appreciate, will be a Music conducive to Dream, which banishes all reason and analysis. One must not wish first to understand and then to feel. Art does not tolerate Reason.

Blessed are the hearts that can bend; they shall never be broken.

Man wants to live, but it is useless to hope that this desire will dictate all his actions.

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

We always deceive ourselves twice about the people we love - first to their advantage, then to their disadvantage.

The gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of its own weight. They had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor.