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
rejection unity artistic-creation
Artistic creation is a demand for unity and a rejection of the world.
spring mean unity
I can negate everything of that part of me that lives on vague nostalgias, except this desire for unity, this longing to solve, this need for clarity and cohesion. I can refute everything in this world surrounding me that offends or enraptures me, except this chaos, this sovereign chance and this divine equivalence which springs from anarchy. I don't know whether this world has meaning that transcends it. But I know that I do not know that meaning and that it is impossible for me just now to know it. What can a meaning outside my condition mean to me? I can understand only in human terms.
unity principles needs
It is not the world that is absurd, nor human thought: the absurd arises when the human need to understand meets the unreasonableness of the world, when 'my appetite for the absolute and for unity' meets 'the impossibility of reducing this world to a rational and reasonable principle.'
unity demand rebellion
In every rebellion is to be found the metaphysical demand for unity, the impossibility of capturing it, and the construction of a substitute universe.
evil life-and-death unity
Metaphysical rebellion is a claim, motivated by the concept of a complete unity, against the suffering of life and death and a protest against the human condition both for its incompleteness, thanks to death, and its wastefulness, thanks to evil.
unity kind rebellion
Every rebellion implies some kind of unity.
future historians modern sentence single suffice
I sometimes think of what future historians will say of us. A single sentence will suffice for modern man: he fornicated and read the papers.
french-philosopher great last shall takes wait
I shall tell you a great secret, my friend. Do not wait for the last judgment, it takes place every day.
great judgement last secret shall takes wait
I shall tell you a great secret my friend. Do not wait for the last judgement, it takes place every day.
itself mind watches whose
An intellectual is a person whose mind watches itself
becoming either ends heretic oppressor revolution
Every revolution ends by becoming either an oppressor or a heretic
becoming either ends french-philosopher oppressor
Every revolutionary ends by becoming either an oppressor or a heretic.
hang judgment-and-judges last takes waiting
There's no need to hang about waiting for the last judgment. It takes place every day.
consent forgiven french-philosopher happiness share successes
You are forgiven for your happiness and your successes only if you generously consent to share them.