Albert Camus
Albert Camus
Albert Camus; 7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960) was a French philosopher, author, and journalist. 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. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth7 November 1913
CountryFrance
suicide philosophy suicidal
Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy.
ideas fundamentals firsts
L'absurde est la notion essentielle et la premie' re ve? rite? . The absurd is the fundamental idea and the first truth.
world absurd refuge
The world in which we were called to exist was an absurd world, and there was no other in which we could take refuge.
dream children errors
In our wildest aberrations we dream of an equilibrium we have left behind and which we naively expect to find at the end of our errors. Childish presumption which justifies the fact that child-nations, inheriting our follies, are now directing our history.
solitude violence working-conditions
Working conditions for me have always been those of the monastic life: solitude and frugality. Except for frugality, they are contrary to my nature, so much so that work is a violence I do to myself.
violence
Violence is both unavoidable and unjustifiable.
believe differences historical
To correct a natural indifference I was placed half-way between misery and the sun. Misery kept me from believing that all was well under the sun, and the sun taught me that history wasn't everything.
men law trying
For centuries the death penalty, often accompanied by barbarous refinements, has been trying to hold crime in check; yet crime persists. Why? Because the instincts that are warring in man are not, as the law claims, constant forces in a state of equilibrium.
thinking-of-you thinking wells
Am well. Thinking of you always. Love
mean knows
To govern means to pillage, as everyone knows.
suffering eternal-happiness moments
For who would dare to assert that eternal happiness can compensate for a single moment's human suffering
silence ears world
The world is never quiet, even its silence eternally resounds with the same notes, in vibrations which escape our ears. As for those that we perceive, they carry sounds to us, occasionally a chord, never a melody.
death thinking race
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.
children men air
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.