Quotes from Albert Camus

We rarely confide in those who are better than we are.

What is a rebel A man who says no.

What then is capital punishment but the most premeditated of murders, to which no criminal's deed, however calculated it may be, can be compared For there to be an equivalence, the death penalty would have to punish a criminal, who had warned his victim of the date at which he would inflict a horrible death on him, and who from that moment onward had confined him at his mercy for months. Such a monster is not encountered in private life.

You know what charm is a way of getting the answer yes without having asked any clear question.

Stupidity has a knack of getting its way.

Whoever today speaks of human existence in terms of power, efficiency, and historical tasks is an actual or potential assassin.

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?

Rebellion, in man, is the refusal to be treated as an object and to be reduced to simple historical terms. It is the affirmation of a nature common to all men, which eludes the world of power.

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

Human relationships always help us to carry on because they always presuppose a future.

Intelligence in chains loses in lucidity what it gains in intensity.

The temptation shared by all forms of intelligence: cynicism.

Ah, mon cher, for anyone who is alone, without God and without a master, the weight of days is dreadful.

If Christianity is pessimistic as to man, it is optimistic as to human destiny. Well, I can say that, pessimistic as to human destiny, I am optimistic as to man.

Don't wait for the Last Judgment. It takes place every day.

I can feel this heart inside me and I conclude it exists. I can touch this world and I also conclude that it exists. All my knowledge ends at this point. The rest is hypothesis.

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.

To know oneself one should assert oneself.

The slave begins by demanding justice and ends by wanting to wear a crown. He must dominate in his turn.

Life is meaningless, but worth living, provided you recognize it's meaningless.

Life is a sum of all your choices". So, what are you doing today?

You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.

There are causes worth dying for, but none worth killing for.

To correct a natural indifference I was placed half-way between misery and the sun. Misery kept me from believing that all was well under the sun, and the sun taught me that history wasn't everything.