Quotes from Albert Camus

Working conditions for me have always been those of the monastic life: solitude and frugality. Except for frugality, they are contrary to my nature, so much so that work is a violence I do to myself.

The laws of nature may be operative up to a certain limit, beyond which they turn against themselves to give birth to the absurd.

Nature is a burning and frigid, transparent and limited universe in which nothing is possible but everything is given.

We turn our backs on nature; we are ashamed of beauty. Our wretched tragedies have a smell of the office clinging to them, and the blood that trickles from them is the color of printer's ink.

Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is.

Peace is the only battle worth waging.

There will be no lasting peace either in the heart of individuals or in social customs until death is outlawed.

The rebel can never find peace. He knows what is good and, despite himself, does evil. The value which supports him is never given to him once and for all - he must fight to uphold it, unceasingly.

In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.

There is no sun without shadow, and it is essential to know the night.

Those who lack the courage will always find a philosophy to justify it.

There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide.

The only serious question in life is whether to kill yourself or not.

I don't know whether this world has a meaning that transcends it. But I know that I cannot know that meaning and that it is impossible for me just now to know it.

Ironic philosophies produce passionate works.

No code of ethics and no effort are justifiable a priori in the face of the cruel mathematics that command our condition.

I am strangely tired, not from having talked so much but at the mere thought of what I still have to say

If there were a party of those who aren't sure they're right, I'd belong t

I am not made for politics because I am incapable of wanting or accepting the death of the adversary.

Men who have greatness within them don't go in for politics.

Germany collapsed as a result of having engaged in a struggle for empire with the concepts of provincial politics.

Man is the only creature that refuses to be what he is.

Lucifer also has died with God, and from his ashes has arisen a spiteful demon who does not even understand the object of his venture.

God put self-pity by the side of despair like the cure by the side of the disease.