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Albert Camus on Philosophy

1913–1960 France

← All quotes by Albert Camus

14 quotes

A character is never the author who created him. It is quite likely, however, that an author may be all his characters simultaneously.

The Rebel (1951)

Accepting the absurdity of everything around us is one step, a necessary experience: it should not become a dead end. It arouses a revolt that can become fruitful.

In order to cease being a doubtful case, one has to cease being, that's all.

The Fall (1956)

A novel is never anything but a philosophy put into images.

In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.

At any street corner the feeling of absurdity can strike any man in the face.

The Myth of Sisyphus (1942)

The absurd is the essential concept and the first truth.

The Myth of Sisyphus (1942)

I do not have much liking for the too famous existential philosophy, and, to tell the truth, I think its conclusions false.

Resistance, Rebellion, and Death (1960)

Do not wait for the Last Judgment. It takes place every day.

The Fall (1956)

There is always a philosophy for lack of courage.

Notebooks (1942)

The absurd does not liberate; it binds. It does not authorize all actions. "Everything is permitted" does not mean that nothing is forbidden.

The Myth of Sisyphus (1942)

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.

Great novelists are philosopher novelists — that is, the contrary of thesis-writers.

The Myth of Sisyphus (1942)

Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. All the rest — whether or not the world has three dimensions, whether the mind has nine or twelve categories — comes afterward. These are games; one must first answer.

The Myth of Sisyphus (1942)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Albert Camus (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.