39 Philosophical And Thought-Provoking Quotes By Albert Camus

Albert Camus (1913-1960) was a French Nobel Prize-winning author, journalist, and philosopher. His views contributed to the rise of the philosophy known as absurdism. He wrote in his essay "The Rebel" that his whole life was devoted to opposing the philosophy of nihilism while still delving deeply into individual freedom.

Camus was born in Algeria to a Pied-Noir family and studied at the University of Algiers. Camus is also known for founding the Group for International Liaisons within the Revolutionary Union Movement in 1949 after his split with Garry Davis's Citizens of the World movement. The formation of this group, according to Camus, was intended to "denounce two ideologies found in both the USSR and the USA" regarding their idolatry of technology.

Camus was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize for Literature "for his important literary production, which with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our times".

We recommend you to read and think these 39 philosophical and thought-provoking quotes by Albert Camus:

1) “You know what charm is: a way of getting the answer yes without having asked any clear question.” (The Fall)

2) “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)

3) “People hasten to judge in order not to be judged themselves.” (The Fall)

4) “It is the job of thinking people not to be on the side of the executioners.”

(Neither Victims Nor Executioners)

5) “When I look at my life and its secret colours, I feel like bursting into tears.” (A Happy Death)

6) “Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better.”

7) “Every act of rebellion expresses a nostalgia for innocence and an appeal to the essence of being.” (The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt)

8) “When the soul suffers too much, it develops a taste for misfortune.” (The First Man)

9) “What is a rebel? A man who says no.”

10) “Real generosity towards the future lies in giving all to the present.” (Notebooks 1935-1942)

11) “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.”

12) “Life can be magnificent and overwhelming -- that is the whole tragedy. Without beauty, love, or danger it would almost be easy to live. ”

13) “I do not believe in God and I am not an atheist.” (Notebooks 1951-1959)

14) “There is not love of life without despair about life.” (The Stranger)

15) “I may not have been sure about what really did interest me, but I was absolutely sure about what didn't.” (The Stranger)

16) “I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world.” (The Stranger)

17) “I had only a little time left and I didn't want to waste it on God.” (The Stranger)

18) “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)

19) “My dear,
In the midst of hate, I found there was, within me, an invincible love.
In the midst of tears, I found there was, within me, an invincible smile.
In the midst of chaos, I found there was, within me, an invincible calm.
I realized, through it all, that…
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.

Truly yours,
Albert Camus”

20) “In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion." (The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays)

21) “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)

22) “Seeking what is true is not seeking what is desirable.” (The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays)

23) “Some people talk in their sleep. Lecturers talk while other people sleep.”

24) “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.”

25) “Always go too far, because that's where you'll find the truth.”

26) “Do not wait for the last judgment. It comes every day.”

27) “At the heart of all beauty lies something inhuman.”

28) “Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth.”

29) “The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself.”

30) “Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.”

31) “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.”

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

33) “But in the end one needs more courage to live than to kill himself.”

34) “Live to the point of tears.”

35) “Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.”

36) “Should I kill myself, or have a cup of coffee?”

37) “Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is.”

38) “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.”

39) “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.”

Related Books:

• The Fall
• Neither Victims Nor Executioners
• The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt
• The First Man
• The Stranger
• Notebooks 1935-1942
• A Happy Death
• The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays

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