Albert Camus quotes

“All great deeds and all great thoughts have a ridiculous beginning. Great works are often born on a street corner or in a restaurant's revolving door.”

— Albert Camus

“After all manner of professors have done their best for us, the place we are to get knowledge is in books. The true university of these days is a collection of books.”

— Albert Camus

“Culture: the cry of men in face of their destiny.”

— Albert Camus

“Martyrs, my friend, have to choose between being forgotten, mocked or used. As for being understood - never.”

— Albert Camus

“Only a philosophy of eternity, in the world today, could justify non-violence.”

— Albert Camus

“As a remedy to life in society I would suggest the big city. Nowadays, it is the only desert within our means.”

— Albert Camus

“There is the good and the bad, the great and the low, the just and the unjust. I swear to you that all that will never change.”

— Albert Camus

“Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present.”

— Albert Camus

“The society based on production is only productive, not creative.”

— Albert Camus

“When you have really exhausted an experience you always reverence and love it.”

— Albert Camus

“All modern revolutions have ended in a reinforcement of the power of the State.”

— Albert Camus

“It is normal to give away a little of one's life in order not to lose it all.”

— Albert Camus

“Real nobility is based on scorn, courage, and profound indifference.”

— Albert Camus

“In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion.”

— Albert Camus

“Retaliation is related to nature and instinct, not to law. Law, by definition, cannot obey the same rules as nature.”

— Albert Camus

“What the world requires of the Christians is that they should continue to be Christians.”

— Albert Camus

“The myth of unlimited production brings war in its train as inevitably as clouds announce a storm.”

— Albert Camus

“How hard, how bitter it is to become a man!”

— Albert Camus

“Those who weep for the happy periods which they encounter in history acknowledge what they want; not the alleviation but the silencing of misery.”

— Albert Camus

“Those who write clearly have readers, those who write obscurely have commentators.”

— Albert Camus

“Men are never really willing to die except for the sake of freedom: therefore they do not believe in dying completely.”

— Albert Camus

“One leader, one people, signifies one master and millions of slaves.”

— Albert Camus

“Virtue cannot separate itself from reality without becoming a principle of evil.”

— Albert Camus

“He who despairs of the human condition is a coward, but he who has hope for it is a fool.”

— Albert Camus

“Man wants to live, but it is useless to hope that this desire will dictate all his actions.”

— Albert Camus

“The real passion of the twentieth century is servitude.”

— Albert Camus

“There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.”

— Albert Camus

“Every revolutionary ends up either by becoming an oppressor or a heretic.”

— Albert Camus

“Man is an idea, and a precious small idea once he turns his back on love.”

— Albert Camus

“To be famous, in fact, one has only to kill one's landlady.”

— Albert Camus