Quotes from Albert Camus

Real fulfillment, for the man who allows absolutely free rein to his desires, and who much dominate everything, lies in hatred.

That's the way man is, cher monsieur. He has two faces: he can't love without self-love.

What the world expects of Christians is that Christians should speak out, loud and clear... in such a way that never a doubt, never the slightest doubt, could rise in the heart of the simplest man.

This absurd, godless world is, then, peopled with men who think clearly and have ceased to hope. And I have not yet spoken of the most absurd character, who is the creator.

The future is the only transcendental value for men without God.

Death means nothing to men like me. It's the event that proves them right.

Politics and the fate of mankind are formed by men without ideals and without greatness. Those who have greatness within them do not go in for politics.

In every guilty man, there is some innocence. This makes every absolute condemnation revolting.

In our society, any man who doesn't cry at his mother's funeral is liable to be condemned to death.

The principle can be established that for a man who does not cheat what he believes to be true must determine his actions.

How had I not seen that there was nothing more important than an execution, and that when you come right down to it, it was the only thing a man could truly be interested in?

Being is good, but getting rich is better.... If the gods had only the riches of men's adoration, they would be as poor as poor Caligula.

The absurd depends as much on man as on the world. For the moment, it is all that links them together.

It is a kind of spiritual snobbery that makes people think they can be happy without money.

Having money is a way of being free of money

Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don't know. I got a telegram from the home: 'Mother deceased. Funeral tomorrow. Faithfully yours.' That doesn't mean anything. Maybe it was yesterday.

Happiness is not everything and men have their duties. Mine is to find my mother, a homeland

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

All great deeds and all great thoughts have a ridiculous beginning. Great works are often born on a street corner or in a restaurant's revolving door.

Yes, and when the love of life disappears, no meaning can console us.

Sometimes, carrying on, just carrying on, is the superhuman achievement.

The most exhausting effort in my life has been to suppress my own nature in order to make it serve my biggest plans.

I was born poor and without religion, under a happy sky, feeling harmony, not hostility, in nature. I began not by feeling torn, but in plenitude.

I enjoyed my own nature to the fullest, and we all know there lies happiness, although, to soothe one another mutually, we occasionally pretend to condemn such joys as selfishness.