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
book reality cities
Thus I progressed on the surface of life, in the realm of words as it were, never in reality. All those books barely read, those friends barely loved, those cities barely visited, those women barely possessed! I went through the gestures out of boredom or absent-mindedness. Then came human beings; they wanted to cling, but there was nothing to cling to, and that was unfortunate--for them. As for me, I forgot. I never remembered anything but myself.
dirty cities paris
[Paris] is dirty. It has pigeons and black yards. The people have white skin.
distance order cities
In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion; in order to serve others better, one has to hold them at a distance for a time. But where can one find the solitude necessary to vigor, the deep breath in which the mind collects itself and courage gauges its strength? There remain big cities.
life mean cities
As a remedy to life in society I would suggest the big city. Nowadays, it is the only desert within our means.
barely books boredom came cities cling gestures human realm remembered surface thus women words
Then came human beings, they wanted to cling but there was nothing to cling to. Thus I progressed on the surface of life, in the realm of words as it were, never in reality. All those books barely read, those friends barely loved, those cities barely visited, those women barely possessed! I went through the gestures out of boredom or absent-mindedness. Then came the human beings, they wanted to cling, but there was nothing to cling to, and that was unfortunate - for them. As for me, I forgot. I never remembered anything but myself.
awaken face faces fact glow happiness man mere night seen torn vocation
When you have once seen the glow of happiness on the face of a belovedperson, you know that a man can have no vocation but to awaken thatlight on the faces surrounding him; and you are torn by the thought ofthe unhappiness and night you cast, by the mere fact of living, in thehearts you encounter.
war struggle world
Germany collapsed as a result of having engaged in a struggle for empire with the concepts of provincial politics.
men hair alive
He seemed so certain about everything, didn't he? And yet none of his certainties was worth one hair of a woman's head. He wasn't even sure he was alive, because he was living like a dead man.
time police law-enforcement
To insure the adoration of a theorem for any length of time, faith is not enough, a police force is needed as well.
dream country night
Holland is a dream, Monsieur, a dream of gold and smoke-smokier by day, more gilded by night. And night and day that dream is peopled with Lohengrins like these, dreamily riding their black bicycles with high handle-bars, funereal swans constantly drifting throughout the whole country, around the seas, along the canals.
acting nazism logic
A régime [Nazism] which invented a biological foreign policy was obviously acting against its own best interests. But at least it obeyed its own particular logic.
men good-man victim
There are plagues, and there are victims, and it's the duty of good men not to join forces with the plagues.
nature burning frigid
Nature is a burning and frigid, transparent and limited universe in which nothing is possible but everything is given.
civilization world deeds
A trial cannot be conducted by announcing the general culpability of a civilization. Only the actual deeds which, at least, stank in the nostrils of the entire world were brought to judgment.