222 quotes
Even before the bomb, one did not breathe too easily in this tortured world. Now we are given a new source of anguish; it has all the promise of being our greatest anguish ever.
Between Hell and Reason (1945)
What will be left of the power of example if it is proved that capital punishment has another power, and a very real one, which degrades men to the point of shame, madness, and murder?
Reflections on the Guillotine (1957)
The American, English and French newspapers are spewing out elegant dissertations on the atomic bomb. We can sum it up in a single phrase: mechanized civilization has just achieved the last degree of savagery.
The ancients, even though they believed in destiny, believed primarily in nature, in which they participated wholeheartedly. To rebel against nature amounted to rebelling against oneself. It was butting one's head against a wall.
The Rebel (1951)
To two men living the same number of years, the world always provides the same sum of experiences. It is up to us to be conscious of them.
The Myth of Sisyphus (1942)
Having money is a way of being free of money.
A Happy Death (written 1936-38 (1971)
The realization that life is absurd and cannot be an end, but only a beginning. This is a truth nearly all great minds have taken as their starting point. It is not this discovery that is interesting, but the consequences and rules of action drawn from it.
The important thing isn't the soundness or otherwise of the argument, but for it to make you think.
The Plague (1947)
In the end, man is not entirely guilty — he did not start history. Nor is he wholly innocent — he continues it.
The Rebel (1951)
Happiness implied a choice, and within that choice a concerted will, a lucid desire.
A Happy Death (written 1936-38 (1971)
Great novelists are philosopher novelists — that is, the contrary of thesis-writers.
The Myth of Sisyphus (1942)
Happiness and the absurd are two sons of the same earth. They are inseparable.
The Myth of Sisyphus (1942)
Knowing whether or not one can live without appeal is all that interests me.
The Myth of Sisyphus (1942)
There is no mystery in humans creation. Will performs this miracle. But at least there is no true creation without a secret.
The Myth of Sisyphus (1942)
Since we're all going to die, it's obvious that when and how don't matter.
The Stranger (1942)
One recognizes one's course by discovering the paths that stray from it.
The Myth of Sisyphus (1942)
We get into the habit of living before acquiring the habit of thinking.
The Myth of Sisyphus (1942)
No doctrine tempts it. It awaits the ripening of the work and of life.
The Myth of Sisyphus (1942)
Blessed are the hearts that can bend; they shall never be broken.
A Happy Death (written 1936-38 (1971)
'At my age one's got to be sincere. Lying's too much effort.'
The Plague (1947)