Albert Camus
433 quotes
Biography
Albert Camus was a French philosopher, novelist, author, dramatist, journalist, world federalist, and political activist. He was the recipient of the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44, the second-youngest recipient in history, and the first laureate in literature born in Africa.
"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"
"Without freedom, no art; art lives only on the restraints it imposes on itself, and dies of all others."
"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."
"In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer."
"It is necessary to fall in love... if only to provide an alibi for all the random despair you are going to feel anyway."
"Why should it be essential to love rarely in order to love much?"
"A guilty conscience needs to confess. A work of art is a confession."
"Should I kill myself, or have a cup of coffee?"
"Live to the point of tears."
"You know what charm is: a way of getting the answer yes without having asked any clear question."
"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."
"But in the end one needs more courage to live than to kill himself."
"He who despairs of the human condition is a coward, but he who has hope for it is a fool."
"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 continue to shape our personality all our life. If we knew ourselves perfectly, we should die."
"When I look at my life and its secret colours, I feel like bursting into tears."
"Real generosity towards the future lies in giving all to the present."
"Blessed are the hearts that can bend; they shall never be broken."
"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."
"The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself."
"I used to advertise my loyalty and I don't believe there is a single person I loved that I didn't eventually betray."
"Do not wait for the last judgment. It comes every day."
"I do not believe in God and I am not an atheist."
"Man wants to live, but it is useless to hope that this desire will dictate all his actions."
"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."