222 quotes
To be happy, we must not be too concerned with others.
The Fall (1956)
An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself.
Notebooks (1942)
It's better to bet on this life than on the next.
A Happy Death (written 1936-38 (1971)
Mistaken ideas always end in bloodshed, but in every case it is someone else's blood. That is why some of our thinkers feel free to say just about anything.
The actor's realm is that of the fleeting.
The Myth of Sisyphus (1942)
Idleness is fatal only to the mediocre.
A Happy Death (1971)
The contradiction is this: man rejects the world as it is, without accepting the necessity of escaping it. In fact, men cling to the world and by far the majority do not want to abandon it.
The Rebel (1951)
To those who despair of everything reason cannot provide a faith, but only passion, and in this case it must be the same passion that lay at the root of the despair, namely humiliation and hatred.
Our technical civilization has just reached its greatest level of savagery. We will have to choose, in the more or less near future, between collective suicide and the intelligent use of our scientific conquests.
Between Hell and Reason (1945)
Truth, like light, blinds. Falsehood, on the contrary, is a beautiful twilight that enhances every object.
The Fall (1956)
God is not needed to create guilt or to punish. Our fellow men suffice, aided by ourselves.
The Fall (1956)
What is a rebel? A man who says no.
The Rebel (1951)
But the prisoner does not speak.
The Rebel (1951)
But in the end one needs more courage to live than to kill himself.
A Happy Death (written 1936-38 (1971)
Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday; I can't be sure.
The Stranger (1942)
Poor and free rather than rich and enslaved. Of course, men want to be both rich and free, and this is what leads them at times to be poor and enslaved.
Notebooks (1942)
There can be no question of holding forth on ethics. I have seen people behave badly with great morality and I note every day that integrity has no need of rules.
The Myth of Sisyphus (1942)
Opinions differ as to the reasons why he became the futile laborer of the underworld. To begin with, he is accused of a certain levity in regard to the gods. He stole their secrets.
The Myth of Sisyphus (1942)
Martyrs must choose between being forgotten, mocked, or made use of. As for being understood—never!
The Fall (1956)
The slave begins by demanding justice and ends by wanting to wear a crown. He must dominate in his turn.
The Rebel (1951)