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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.

— Albert Camus The Rebel (1951)

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More quotes by Albert Camus

The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.

The Myth of Sisyphus (1942)

A nihilist is not one who believes in nothing, but one who does not believe in what exists.

The Rebel (1951)

Man cannot do without beauty, and this is what our era pretends to want to disregard.

Helen's Exile (1948)

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)

Knowing that certain nights whose sweetness lingers will keep returning to the earth and sea after we are gone, yes, this helps us to die.

All Albert Camus quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Albert Camus (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.