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I Felt The Urge To Reassure Him That I Was Like Everybody Else, Just Like Everybody Else.
-Albert Camus
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I Felt The Urge

Albert Camus
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I Felt The Urge To Reassure Him That I Was Like Everybody Else, Just Like Everybody Else.

Understanding the Quote: "i felt the urge to reassure him that i was like everybody..."

This quote by Albert Camus reflects deeply on the theme of felt. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Felt, Urges, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Albert Camus interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Albert Camus

Albert Camus is celebrated for insightful thoughts on felt and urges. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Felt
Urges
More From Albert Camus
After All Perhaps The Greatness Of Art Lies In The Perpetual Tension Between Beauty And Pain, The Love Of Men And The Madness Of Creation, Unbearable Solitude And The Exhausting Crowd, Rejection And Consent.
Art
Pain
Lying
The Society Of Merchants Can Be Defined As A Society In Which Things Disappear In Favor Of Signs. When A Ruling Class Measures Its Fortunes, Not By The Acre Of Land Or The Ingot Of Gold, But By The Number Of Figures Corresponding Ideally To A Certain Number Of Exchange Operations, It Thereby Condemns Itself To Setting A Certain Kind Of Humbug At The Center Of Its Experience And Its Universe. A Society Founded On Signs Is, In Its Essence, An Artificial Society In Which Man's Carnal Truth Is Handled As Something Artificial.
Men
Numbers
Land
Rebellion Cannot Exist Without The Feeling That Somewhere, In Some Way, You Are Justified.
Feelings
Way
Justified
We Have To Live And Let Live In Order To Create What We Are.
Order
Idealism
Live And Let Live
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.
Men
Escaping
Majority
Having Money Is A Way Of Being Free Of Money.
Money
Being Free
Way
I Explained To Him, However, That My Nature Was Such That My Physical Needs Often Got In The Way Of My Feelings.
Feelings
Needs
Way
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.
World
Impossible
Sisyphus
Do Not Wait For The Last Judgment. It Takes Place Every Day.
Waiting
Lasts
Judgment
We Are Condemned To Live Together.
Together
And Often He Who Has Chosen The Fate Of The Artist Because He Felt Himself To Be Different Soon Realizes That He Can Maintain Neither His Art Nor His Difference Unless He Admits That He Is Like The Others. The Artist Forges Himself To The Others, Midway Between The Beauty He Cannot Do Without And The Community He Cannot Tear Himself Away From.
Art
Fate
Differences
I Realized Then That A Man Who Had Lived Only One Day Could Easily Live For A Hundred Years In Prison. He Would Have Enough Memories To Keep Him From Being Bored
Memories
Men
Years
There Is So Much Stubborn Hope In The Human Heart.
Heart
Stubborn
Human Heart
I Cling Like A Miser To The Freedom That Disappears As Soon As There Is An Excess Of Things.
Excess
Disappear
Misers
No Doubt Our Love Was Still There, But Quite Simply It Was Unusable, Heavy To Carry, Inert Inside Of Us, Sterile As Crime Or Condemnation. It Was No Longer Anything Except A Patience With No Future And A Stubborn Wait.
Waiting
Doubt
Stubborn
That Is Love, To Give Away Everything, To Sacrifice Everything, Without The Slightest Desire To Get Anything In Return.3
Love
Sacrifice
Giving
It Happens That The Stage Sets Collapse. Rising, Streetcar, Four Hours In The Office Or The Factory, Meal, Streetcar, Four Hours Of Work, Meal, Sleep, And Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday And Saturday According To The Same Rhythm – This Path Is Easily Followed Most Of The Time. But One Day The “why” Arises And Everything Begins In That Weariness Tinged With Amazement.
Friday
Monday
Sleep
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.
Character
Thinking
Men
I've Seen Of Enough Of People Who Die For An Idea. I Don't Believe In Heroism; I Know It's Easy And I've Learned It Can Be Murderous. What Interests Me Is Living And Dying For What One Loves.
Believe
Ideas
People
Seeking What Is True Is Not Seeking What Is Desirable.
Life
Truth
Atheism
What’s True Of All The Evils In The World Is True Of Plague As Well. It Helps Men To Rise Above Themselves.
Men
Evil
World
You Know, [women] Do Not Really Condemn Any Weakness: Rather, They Try To Humiliate Or Disarm Our Strengths. That Is Why Women Arethe Reward, Not Of The Warrior, But Of The Criminal.
Warrior
Men
Trying
Freedom Is Not A Reward Or A Decoration That You Toast In Champagne. On The Contrary, It's Hard Graft And A Long-distance Run, All Alone, Very Exhausting. Alone In A Dreary Room, Alone In The Dock Before The Judges, And Alone To Make Up Your Mind, Before Yourself And Before The Judgement Of Others. At The End Of Every Freedom There Is A Sentence, Which Is Why Freedom Is Too Heavy To Bear.
Running
Distance
Long
I Said That The World Is Absurd, But I Was Too Hasty. This World In Itself Is Not Reasonable, That Is All That Can Be Said. But What Is Absurd Is The Confrontation Of This Irrational And The Wild Longing For Clarity Whose Call Echoes In The Human Heart.
Heart
Echoes
Absurdity Of Life
If Nothing Had Any Meaning, You Would Be Right. But There Is Something That Still Has A Meaning.
Meaning Of Life
Would Be
Stills
We Do Not Know How To Eliminate Evil, But We Do Know How To Feed Some Of The Hungry And Heal Some Of The Infirmed.
Evil
Hungry
Heal
I Was Always Able To Understand My Friend Who Decided To Quit Smoking And Who, Through An Effort Of Will, Succeeded In Doing So. One Morning, He Opened The Newspaper, Read That The First H- Bomb Had Exploded, Found Out About The Bomb's Admirable Effects And Went Straight To The Tobacconist's.
Morning
Health
Smoking
At The Heart Of All Beauty Lies Something Inhuman, And These Hills, The Softness Of The Sky, The Outline Of These Trees At This Very Minute Lose The Illusory Meaning With Which We Had Clothed Them, Henceforth More Remote Than A Lost Paradise . . . That Denseness And That Strangeness Of The World Is Absurd.
Beauty
Art
Lying
Without Work All Life Goes Rotten.
Work
Rotten
Stifling
Great Feelings Take With Them Their Own Universe, Splendid Or Abject.
Feelings
Splendid
Sisyphus
To Understand One's World, One Must Sometimes Turn Away From It! To Serve Better, One Must Briefly Hold It At A Distance. Where Can The Necessary Solitude Be Found, The Long Breathing Space In Which Mind Gathers Its Strength And Takes Stock Of Its Courage.
Distance
Breathing Space
Long
Can One Be A Saint If God Does Not Exist? That Is The Only Concrete Problem I Know Of Today.
Atheist
Atheism
Doe
Liberty Is The Right Not To Lie.
Lying
Liberty
Tout Re Volutionnaire Finit En Oppresseur Ou En He Re Tique. Every Revolutionary Ends As An Oppressor Or A Heretic.
Revolutionary
Ends
Heretic
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.
Optimistic
Destiny
Men
The Most Important Thing You Do Everyday You Live Is Deciding Not To Kill Yourself.
Philosophical
Everyday
Important
In The Light, The Earth Remains Our First And Our Last Love. Our Brothers Are Breathing Under The Same Sky As We; Justice Is A Living Thing. Now Is Born That Strange Joy Which Helps One Live And Die, And Which We Shall Never Again Postpone To A Later Time.
Brother
Light
Sky
In Default Of Inexhaustible Happiness, Eternal Suffering Would At Least Give Us A Destiny. But We Do Not Even Have That Consolation, And Our Worst Agonies Come To An End One Day.
Destiny
Agony
Giving
The More I Produce, The Less I Am Certain. On The Road Along Which The Artist Walks, Night Falls Ever More Densely. Finally, He Dies Blind.
Fall
Artist
Night
Everyone Would Like To Behave Like A Pagan, With Everyone Else Behaving Like A Christian.
Christian
Pagan
Behave
All Great Deeds And All Great Thoughts Have A Ridiculous Beginning.
Creativity
New Beginnings
Bad Ass
Realism Should Only Be The Means Of Expression Of Religious Genius... Or, At The Other Extreme, The Artistic Expressions Of Monkeys Which Are Quite Satisfied With Mere Imitation. In Fact, Art Is Never Realistic Though Sometimes It Is Tempted To Be. To Be Really Realistic A Description Would Have To Be Endless.
Religious
Art
Mean
... It Is True That I Do Not Respect [human Life] More Than I Respect My Own Life. And If It Is Easy For Me To Kill, That Is Because It Is Difficult For Me To Die.
Life
Death
Respect
Sometimes At Night I Would Sleep Open-eyed Underneath A Sky Dripping With Stars. I Was Alive Then.
Stars
Sleep
Night
Happiness Is Not Everything And Men Have Their Duties. Mine Is To Find My Mother, A Homeland
Family
Happiness
Mother
I Had The Whole Sky In My Eyes And It Was Blue And Gold.
Eye
Blue
Sky
A Fate Is Not A Punishment.
Fate
Punishment
I Rebel; Therefore I Exist.
Life
Rebel
Existentialism
Believe Me There Is No Such Thing As Great Suffering, Great Regret, Great Memory....everything Is Forgotten, Even A Great Love. That's What's Sad About Life, And Also What's Wonderful About It. There Is Only A Way Of Looking At Things, A Way That Comes To You Every Once In A While. That's Why It's Good To Have Had Love In Your Life After All, To Have Had An Unhappy Passion- It Gives You An Alibi For The Vague Despairs We All Suffer From.
Memories
Regret
Believe
After A Short Silence The Doctor Raised Himself A Little In His Chair And Asked If Tarrou Had An Idea Of The Path To Follow For Attaining Peace. "yes, He Replied. "the Path Of Sympathy.
Doctors
Ideas
Silence
...the Habit Of Despair Is Worse Than Despair Itself.
Life
Despair
Habit
Madness Such As This, Its Like Trying To Stop A Fire With The Moisture From A Kiss
Kissing
Fire
Trying
Every Minute Of Life Carries With It Its Miraculous Value, And Its Face Of Eternal Youth.
Faces
Youth
Minutes
There Is No Longer A Single Idea Explaining Everything, But An Infinite Number Of Essences Giving A Meaning To An Infinite Number Of Objects. The World Comes To A Stop, But Also Lights Up.
Light
Essence
Ideas
My Life Was Lucky So That I Met, I Loved (and Disappointed) Only Outstanding People.
People
Lucky
Mets
The Greatness Of Man Lies In His Decision To Be Stronger Than His Condition.
Lying
Greatness
Men
More And More, When Faced With The World Of Men, The Only Reaction Is One Of Individualism. Man Alone Is An End Unto Himself. Everything One Tries To Do For The Common Good Ends In Failure.
Men
Individuality
Trying
But Do You Know Why We Are Always More Just And Generous Toward The Dead? The Reason Is Simple. With Them There Is No Obligation. They Leave Us Free And We Can Take Our Time, Fit The Testimonial Between A Cocktail Party And A Nice Little Mistress, In Our Spare Time, In Short.
Nice
Party
Simple
To Me, Art Is Not A Solitary Delight. It Is A Means Of Stirring The Greatest Number Of Men By Providing Them With A Privileged Image Of Our Common Joys And Woes.
Art
Mean
Men
There Was A Time When I Didn’t At Any Minute Have The Slightest Idea How I Could Reach The Next One. Yes, One Can Wage War In This World, Ape Love, Torture One’s Fellow Man, Or Merely Say Evil Of One’s Neighbour While Knitting. But, In Certain Cases, Carrying On, Merely Continuing, Is Superhuman.
War
Men
Ideas
This Divorce Between Man And His Life, The Actor And His Setting, Is Properly The Feeling Of Absurdity.
Divorce
Men
Absurdity Of Life
The Four Conditions Of Happiness: Life In The Open Air, Love For Another Being,freedom From Ambition,creation
Happiness
Ambition
Air
You Will Never Be Happy If You Continue To Search For What Happiness Consists Of. You Will Never Live If You Are Looking For The Meaning Of Life.
Inspirational
Life
Happiness
The Loss Of Love Is The Loss Of All Rights, Even Though One Had Them All.
Loss
Love Is
Rights
There Is No More Futile Punishment Than Futile And Hopeless Labor.
Success
Work
Punishment
None Of The Evils Which Totalitarianism ... Claims To Remedy Is Worse Than Totalitarianism Itself.
Evil
Claims
Remedy
I Have Never Been Able, Really, To Regret Anything In All My Life. I Have Always Been Far Much Too Absorbed In The Present Moment Or The Immediate Future To Think Back.
Life
Regret
Thinking
Always Go Too Far, Because That's Where You'll Find The Truth
Inspirational
Believe
Anime
Every Ideology Is Contrary To Human Psychology.
Psychology
Ideology
Humans
In Order To Understand The World, One Has To Turn Away From It On Occasion; In Order To Serve Others Better, One Has To Hold Them At A Distance For A Time. But Where Can One Find The Solitude Necessary To Vigor, The Deep Breath In Which The Mind Collects Itself And Courage Gauges Its Strength? There Remain Big Cities.
Distance
Order
Cities
Life Is The Sum Of Your Choices.
Opportunity
Choices
Ethics
In Order To Speak About All And To All, One Has To Speak Of What All Know And Of The Reality Common To Us All. The Sea, Rains, Necessity, Desire, The Struggle Against Death... These Are Things That Unite Us All.
Rain
Struggle
Reality
Alas, After A Certain Age Every Man Is Responsible For His Face.
Birthday
Men
Age
I Grew Up With The Sea, And Poverty For Me Was Sumptuous; Then I Lost The Sea And Found All Luxuries Gray And Poverty Unbearable.
Sea
Luxury
Poverty
Happiness Too Is Inevitable.
Cynicism
Idealism
Inevitable
All I Know Of Morality I Learned From Football
Soccer
Football
Analysis
There Is No Sun Without Shadow, And It Is Essential To Know The Night.
Gratitude
Night
Shadow
Youth Is Above All A Collection Of Possibilities.
Youth
Possibility
Collections
The Welfare Of The People In Particular Has Always Been The Alibi Of Tyrants.
Peace
War
Tyrants
What Is A Rebel? A Man Who Says No: But Whose Refusal Does Not Imply A Renunciation.
Men
Rebel
Doe
One Might Think, That A Period Which, Within Fifty Years, Uproots, Enslaves Or Kills Seventy Million Human Beings, Should Only, And Forthwith, Be Condemned. But Also Its Guilt Must Be Understood.
Thinking
Years
Guilt
False Judges Are Held Up In The World's Admiration And I Alone Know The True Ones.
Judging
World
Admiration
I Feel Like Getting Married, Or Committing Suicide, Or Subscribing To L'illustration. Something Desperate, You Know.
Suicide
Illustration
Married
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.
Doe
Ashes
Venture
Je Puis Nier Une Chose Sans Me Croire Obligé De La Salir Ou De Retirer Aux Autres Le Droit D'y Croire.
Atheist
In Oran, As Elsewhere, For Want Of Time And Thought, People Have To Love One Another Without Knowing It.
Time
Knowing
People
Psychology Is Action, Not Thinking About Oneself. We Continue To Shape Our Personality All Our Life. To Know Oneself, One Should Assert Oneself.
Life
Knowledge
Thinking
From The Evening Breeze To This Hand On My Shoulder, Everything Has Its Truth.
Hands
Evening
Shoulders
To Insure The Adoration Of A Theorem For Any Length Of Time, Faith Is Not Enough, A Police Force Is Needed As Well.
Time
Police
Law Enforcement
Truth, Like Light, Is Blinding. Lies, On The Other Hand, Are A Beautiful Dusk, Which Enhances The Value Of Each Object.
Beautiful
Truth
Lying
To Those Who Despair Of Everything Reason Cannot Provide A Faith, But Only Passion, And In This Case It Must Be The Same Passion That Lay At The Root Of The Despair, Namely Humiliation And Hatred.
Passion
Roots
Hatred
The World Expects Of Christians That They Will Raise Their Voices So Loudly And Clearly And So Formulate Their Protest That Not Even The Simplest Man Can Have The Slightest Doubt About What They Are Saying. Further, The World Expects Of Christians That They Will Eschew All Fuzzy Abstractions And Plant Themselves Squarely In Front Of The Bloody Face Of History. We Stand In Need Of Folk Who Have Determined To Speak Directly And Unmistakably And Come What May, To Stand By What They Have Said.
Christian
Religious
Men
The Best Are Led To Make Greater Demands Upon Themselves. As For Those Who Succumb, They Did Not Deserve To Survive.
Demand
Greater
Deserve
Metaphysical Rebellion Is A Claim, Motivated By The Concept Of A Complete Unity, Against The Suffering Of Life And Death And A Protest Against The Human Condition Both For Its Incompleteness, Thanks To Death, And Its Wastefulness, Thanks To Evil.
Life And Death
Evil
Unity
For Instance, I Never Complained That My Birthday Was Overlooked; People Were Even Surprised, With A Touch Of Admiration, By My Discretion On This Subject. But The Reason For My Disinterestedness Was Even More Discreet: I Longed To Be Forgotten In Order To Be Able To Complain To Myself... Once My Solitude Was Thoroughly Proved, I Could Surrender To The Charms Of A Virile Self-pity.
Self
Order
People
When The Throne Of God Is Overturned, The Rebel Realizes That It Is Now His Own Responsibility To Create The Justice, Order, And Unity That He Sought In Vain Within His Own Condition, And In This Way To Justify The Fall Of God. Then Begins The Desperate Effort To Create, At The Price Of Crime And Murder If Necessary, The Dominion Of Man.
Fall
Responsibility
Men
What, Then, Is That Incalculable Feeling That Deprives The Mind Of The Sleep Necessary To Life? A World That Can Be Explained Even With Bad Reasons Is A Familiar World. But, On The Other Hand, In A Universe Suddenly Divested Of Illusions And Lights, Man Feels An Alien, A Stranger. His Exile Is Without Remedy Since He Is Deprived Of The Memory Of A Lost Home Or The Hope Of A Promised Land. This Divorce Between Man And His Life, The Actor And His Setting, Is Properly The Feeling Of Absurdity.
Memories
Sleep
Divorce
A Man Devoid Of Hope And Conscious Of Being So Has Ceased To Belong To The Future.
Men
Conscious
It Was Previously A Question Of Finding Out Whether Or Not Life Had To Have A Meaning To Be Lived. It Now Becomes Clear On The Contrary That It Will Be Lived All The Better If It Has No Meaning
Life
Clear
Findings
Time Will Prolong Time, And Life Will Serve Life. In This Field That Is Both Limited And Bulging With Possibilities, Everything To Himself, Except His Lucidity, Seems Unforeseeable To Him. What Rule, Then, Could Emanate From That Unreasonable Order? The Only Truth That Might Seem Instructive To Him Is Not Formal: It Comes To Life And Unfolds In Men. The Absurd Mind Cannot So Much Expect Ethical Rules At The End Of Its Reasoning As, Rather, Illustrations And The Breath Of Human Lives.
Men
Illustration
Order
In The World There Is, Parallel To The Force Of Death And Constraint, An Enormous Force Of Persuasion That Is Called Culture.
Culture
World
Persuasion
Yes, I Know What Passion Would Fill Me With All Its Power. Before, I Was Too Young. I Got In The Way. Now I Know That Acting And Loving And Suffering Is Living, Of Course, But It’s Only Living Insofar As You Can Be Transparent And Accept Your Fate, Like The Unique Reflection Of A Rainbow Of Joys And Passions Which Is The Same For Everyone.
Passion
Fate
Reflection
Chacun Exige D'e" Tre Innocent, A' Tout Prix, Me" Me Si, Pour Cela, Il Faut Accuser Le Genre Humain Et Le Ciel. Everyone Insists On His Or Her Innocence, At All Costs, Even If It Means Accusing The Rest Of The Human Race And Heaven.
Mean
Race
Heaven
It Is A Well-known Fact That We Always Recognize Our Homeland At The Moment We Are About To Lose It.
Facts
Well Known
Homeland
The Temptation Shared By All Forms Of Intelligence: Cynicism.
Temptation
Intelligence
Cynicism
You Will Never Live If You Are Looking For The Meaning Of Life.
Life
Happiness
Happy
People Have Played On Words And Pretended To Believe That Refusing To Grant A Meaning To Life Necessarily Leads To Declaring That It Is Not Worth Living. In Truth, There Is No Necessary Common Measure Between These Two Judgments.
Believe
Two
People
Only It Takes Time To Be Happy. A Lot Of Time. Happiness, Too, Is A Long Patience.
Happiness
Time
Long
In The Past, The Poverty They Shared Had A Certain Sweetness About It. When The End Of The Day Came And They Would Eat Their Dinner In Silence With The Oil Lamp Between Them, There Was A Secret Joy In Such Simplicity, Such Retrenchment.
Past
Oil
Silence
Give Up The Tyranny Of Female Charm.
Giving Up
Female
Charm
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.
Sky
Feelings
Harmony
The Modern Mind Is In Complete Disarray. Knowledge Has Stretched Itself To The Point Where Neither The World Nor Our Intelligence Can Find Any Foot-hold. It Is A Fact That We Are Suffering From Nihilism.
Feet
Intelligence
Mind
Don't Walk Behind Me; I May Not Lead. Don't Walk In Front Of Me; I May Not Follow. Just Walk Beside Me And Be My Friend.
Love
Friendship
Happy
A Stranger To Myself And To The World, Armed Solely With A Thought That Negates Itself As Soon As It Asserts, What Is This Condition In Which I Can Have Peace Only By Refusing To Know And To Live, In Which The Appetite For Conquest Bumps Into Walls That Defy Its Assaults?
Wall
Bumps
World
Stupidity Has A Knack Of Getting Its Way; As We Should See If We Were Not Always So Much Wrapped Up In Ourselves
Stupidity
Knack
Way
I Have A Good, Hearty Laugh And An Energetic Handshake, And Those Are Trump Cards.
Laughter
Attitude
Laughing
It Is Easier To Kill What We Do Not Know.
Easier
Knows
But In Order To Speak About All And To All, One Has To Speak Of What All Know And Of The Reality Common To Us All. The Seas, Rains, Necessity, Desire, The Struggle Against Death--these Are Things That Unite Us All. We Resemble One Another In What We See Together, In What We Suffer Together. Dreams Change From Individual, But The Reality Of The World Is Common To Us All. Striving Towards Realism Is Therefore Legitimate, For It Is Basically Related To The Artistic Adventure.
Dream
Rain
Struggle
Retaliation Is Related To Nature And Instinct, Not To Law. Law, By Definition, Cannot Obey The Same Rules As Nature.
Law
Punishment
Intuition
There Is Only One Class Of Men, The Privileged Class
Men
Class
Privileged
What Really Counted Was The Possibility Of Escape, A Leap To Freedom, Out Of The Implacable Ritual, A Wild Run For It That Would Give Whatever Chance For Hope There Was. Of Course, Hope Meant Being Cut Down On Some Street Corner, As You Ran Like Mad, By A Random Bullet. But When I Really Thought It Through, Nothing Was Going To Allow Me Such A Luxury. Everything Was Against It; I Would Just Be Caught Up In The Machinery Again.
Running
Cutting
Luxury
Again And Again There Comes A Time In History When The Man Who Dares To Say That Two And Two Make Four Is Punished With Death. ("the Plague")
Men
Two
Ministry
The Struggle Itself Towards The Heights Is Enough To Fill A Man's Heart. One Must Imagine Sisyphus Happy.
Struggle
Heart
Hard Times
For Those Of Us Who Have Been Thrown Into Hell, Mysterious Melodies And The Torturing Images Of A Vanished Beauty Will Always Bring Us, In The Midst Of Crime And Folly, The Echo Of That Harmonious Insurrection Which Bears Witness, Throughout The Centuries, To The Greatness Of Humanity.
Greatness
Echoes
Humanity
Likewise And During Every Day Of An Unillustrious Life, Time Carries Us. But A Moment Always Comes When We Have To Carry It.
Moments
Life Time
Carrie
Without Freedom, No Art; Art Lives Only On The Restraints It Imposes On Itself, And Dies Of All Others.
Life
Art
Freedom
If Man Is Reduced To Being Nothing But A Character In History, He Has No Other Choice But To Subside Into The Sound And Fury Of Acompletely Irrational History Or To Endow History With The Form Of Human Reason.
Character
Men
History
To Lose One's Life Is No Great Matter; When The Time Comes I'll Have The Courage To Lose Mine. But What's Intolerable Is To See One's Life Being Drained Of Meaning, To Be Told There's No Reason For Existing. A Man Can't Live Without Some Reason For Living.
Men
Matter
Life Is
There Are People Who Prefer To Look Their Fate In The Eye
Eye
Fate
People
They Knew Now That If There Is One Thing One Can Always Yearn For, And Sometimes Attain, It Is Human Love.
Sometimes
Plague
Humans
We Get Into The Habit Of Living Before Acquiring The Habit Of Thinking.
Thinking
Atheism
Habit
Where There Is No Hope, It Is Incumbent On Us To Invent It.
Life
No Hope
Incumbents
The Desire For Possession Is Insatiable, To Such A Point That It Can Survive Even Love Itself. To Love, Therefore, Is To Sterilize The Person One Loves.
Love
Desire
Possession
What Can A Meaning Outside My Condition Mean To Me? I Can Understand Only In Human Terms. What I Touch, What Resists Me - That I Understand. And These Two Certainties - My Appetite For The Absolute And For Unity And The Impossibility Of Reducing This World To A Rational And Reasonable Principle - I Also Know That I Cannot Reconcile Them. What Other Truth Can I Admit Without Lying, Without Bringing In A Hope I Lack And Which Means Nothing Within The Limits Of My Conditions?
Lying
Mean
Two
I Don't Want To Be A Genius-i Have Enough Problems Just Trying To Be A Man.
Men
Justice
Trying
In Holland, Everyone Is An Expert In Painting And In Tulips.
Art
Experts
Painting
Peace Is The Only Battle Worth Waging.
Peace
Humanity
Battle
There Is No Love Of Life Without Despair Of Life.
Love Life
Despair
No Love
That's Love, Giving Everything, Sacrificing All Without Hope Of Return.
Sacrifice
Giving
Return
Thus I Draw From The Absurd Three Consequences, Which Are My Revolt, My Freedom, And My Passion. By The Mere Activity Of Consciousness I Transform Into A Rule Of Life What Was An Invitation To Death—and I Refuse Suicide.
Suicide
Passion
Three
Because,' Cormery Went On, 'when I Was Very Young, Very Foolish, And Very Much Alone ... You Paid Attention To Me And, Without Seeming To, You Opened For Me The Door To Everything I Love In The World.
Doors
Attention
World
Truth Is Mysterious, Elusive, Always To Be Conquered. Liberty Is Dangerous, As Hard To Live With As It Is Elating. We Must March Toward These Two Goals, Painfully But Resolutely, Certain In Advance Of Our Failings On So Long A Road.
Two
Long
Goal
At That Time, I Often Thought That If I Had Had To Live In The Trunk Of A Dead Tree, With Nothing To Do But Look Up At The Sky Flowing Overhead, Little By Little I Would Have Gotten Used To It.
Sky
Tree
Looks
All Healthy Men Have Thought Of Their Own Suicide
Suicide
Health
Men
There Is But One Freedom, To Put Oneself Right With Death. After That Everything Is Possible.
Death
Oneself
The Sense Of Doing Good , The Satisfaction Of Being Right, The Joy Of Looking Favorably Upon Oneself, Dear Sir, Are Powerful Levers For Keeping Us Upright And Making Us Progress. On The Other Hand, If Men Are Deprived Of That Feeling, They Are Changed Into Rabid Dogs.
Dog
Powerful
Men
Nothing Can Discourage The Appetite For Divinity In The Heart Of Man.
Heart
Men
Divinity
A Sub-clerk In The Post Office Is The Equal Of A Conqueror If Consciousness Is Common To Them. All Experiences Are Indifferent In This Regard. There Are Some That Do Either A Service Or A Disservice To Man. They Do Him A Service If He Is Conscious. Otherwise, That Has No Importance: A Man's Failures Imply Judgment, Not Of Circumstances, But Of Himself.
Men
Office
Clerks
If The Only Significant History Of Human Thought Were To Be Written, It Would Have To Be The History Of Its Successive Regrets And Its Impotences.
Regret
Significant
Myth Of Sisyphus
His Own Faith, However, Was Not Lacking In Virtues Since It Consisted In Acknowledging Obscurely That He Would Be Granted Much Without Ever Deserving Anything.
Would Be
Virtue
Granted
I Am Alive Again, Now That I Can No Longer Stand To Live.
Life
Despair
Alive
A Guilty Conscience Needs To Confess. A Work Of Art Is A Confession.
Art
Hipster
Needs
Here Lives A Free Man. Nobody Serves Him.
Men
Free Man
No Matter How The Sun Shone, The Sea Held Forth No More Promises.
Sea
Promise
Matter
It Is Always Easy To Be Logical. It Is Almost Impossible To Be Logical To The Bitter End.
Impossible
Logic
Bitter
Men Die And They Are Not Happy.
Life
Death
Men
There Is A Metaphysical Honour In Ending The World's Absurdity. Conquest Or Play-acting, Multiple Loves, Absurd Revolt Are Tributes That Man Pays To His Dignity In A Campaign In Which He Is Defeated In Advance.... War Cannot Be Negated. One Must Live It Or Die Of It. So It Is With The Absurd: It Is A Question Of Breathing With It, Of Recognizing Its Lessons And Recovering Their Flesh. In This Regard The Absurd Joy Par Excellence Is Creation. "art And Nothing But Art", Said Nietzsche, "we Have Art In Order Not To Die Of The Truth."
Art
War
Men
The Absurd Depends As Much On Man As On The World. For The Moment, It Is All That Links Them Together.
Men
Together
World
Absolute Freedom Mocks At Justice. Absolute Justice Denies Freedom.
Inspirational
Freedom
Justice
I Leave Sisyphus At The Foot Of The Mountain. One Always Finds One's Burden Again. But Sisyphus Teaches The Higher Fidelity That Negates The Gods And Raises Rocks. He Too Concludes That All Is Well. This Universe Henceforth Without A Master Seems To Him Neither Sterile Nor Futile. Each Atom Of That Stone, Each Mineral Flake Of That Night-filled Mountain, In Itself, Forms A World. The Struggle Itself Toward The Heights Is Enough To Fill A Man's Heart. One Must Imagine Sisyphus Happy.
Struggle
Heart
Night
Man Is The Only Creature That Refuses To Be What He Is.
Motivational
Change
Men
Methods Of Thought Which Claim To Give The Lead To Our World In The Name Of Revolution Have Become, In Reality, Ideologies Of Consent And Not Of Rebellion.
Reality
Our World
Uprising
Nature Is A Burning And Frigid, Transparent And Limited Universe In Which Nothing Is Possible But Everything Is Given.
Nature
Burning
Frigid
Every Time I Hear A Political Speech Or I Read Those Of Our Leaders, I Am Horrified At Having, For Years, Heard Nothing Which Sounded Human. It Is Always The Same Words Telling The Same Lies. And The Fact That Men Accept This, That The People’s Anger Has Not Destroyed These Hollow Clowns, Strikes Me As Proof That Men Attribute No Importance To The Way They Are Governed; That They Gamble – Yes, Gamble – With A Whole Part Of Their Life And Their So Called 'vital Interests.
Lying
Men
Years
Art, At Least, Teaches Us That Man Cannot Be Explained By History Alone And That He Also Finds A Reason For His Existence In The Order Of Nature.
Art
Men
Order
... There Are Two Types Of Happiness And I Have Chosen That Of The Murderers. For I Am Happy. There Was A Time When I Thought I Had Reached The Limit Of Distress. Beyond That Limit, There Is A Sterile And Magnificent Happiness.
Happiness
Two
Suffering
It Occurred To Me That Anyway One More Sunday Was Over That Maman Was Buried Now, That I Was Going Back To Work, And That, Really, Nothing Had Changed.
Sunday
Back To Work
Stranger
When The Imagination Sleeps, Words Are Emptied Of Their Meaning: A Deaf Population Absent-mindedly Registers The Condemnation Of A Man. ... There Is No Other Solution But To Speak Out And Show The Obscenity Hidden Under The Verbal Cloak.
Sleep
Men
Speaks Out
We Must Learn How To Lend Ourselves To Dreaming When Dreams Lend Themselves To Us.
Dream
If Those Whom We Begin To Love Could Know Us As We Were Before Meeting Them They Could Perceive What They Have Made Of Us.
Happiness And Love
Made
Perceive
There Is Scarcely Any Passion Without Struggle.
Struggle
Passion
Existentialism
I Had Only A Little Time Left And I Didn't Want To Waste It On God.
Time
Want
Littles
They Hurt Each Other Without Wanting To, Just Because Each Represented To The Others The Cruel And Demanding Necessity Of Their Lives.
Hurt
Every Man, And For Stronger Reasons, Every Artist, Wants To Be Recognized. So Do I.
Artist
Men
Stronger
Men Are Never Convinced Of Your Reasons, Of Your Sincerity, Of The Seriousness Of Your Sufferings, Except By Your Death. So Long As You Are Alive, Your Case Is Doubtful; You Have A Right Only To Their Skepticism.
Death
Men
Long
Imagination Offers People Consolation For What They Cannot Be, And Humor For What They Actually Are.
Art
People
Imagination
He Had Been Bored, That's All, Bored Like Most People. Hence He Had Made Himself Out Of Whole Cloth A Life Full Of Complications And Drama. Something Must Happen - And That Explains Most Human Commitments. Something Must Happen, Even Loveless Slavery, Even War Or Death. Hurray Then For Funerals!
War
Drama
Commitment
The Aim Of Art, The Aim Of A Life Can Only Be To Increase The Sum Of Freedom And Responsibility To Be Found In Every Man And In The World. It Cannot, Under Any Circumstances, Be To Reduce Or Suppress That Freedom, Even Temporarily.
Art
Responsibility
Men
Many Fledgling Moralists In Those Days Were Going About Our Town Proclaiming There Was Nothing To Be Done About It And We Should Bow To The Inevitable. And Tarrou, Rieux, And Their Friends Might Give One Answer Or Another, But Its Conclusion Was Always The Same, Their Certitude That A Fight Must Be Put Up, In This Way Or That, And There Must Be No Bowing Down... There Was Nothing Admirable About This Attitude; It Was Merely Logical.
Attitude
Fighting
Giving
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.
Mother
Home
Mean
I Know [my Label], In Any Case: A Double Face, A Charming Janus, And Underneath, The House Motto: "be Wary". On My Business Cards:"jean-baptiste Clamence, Actor".
Hypocrisy
House
Labels
The Harshest Winter Finds An Invincible Summer In Us.
Summer
Winter
Invincible Summer
There Is But One Truly Serious Philosophical Problem And That Is Suicide. 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 Afterwards. These Are Games; One Must First Answer.
Suicide
Philosophy
Philosophical
A Free Press Can, Of Course, Be Good Or Bad, But, Most Certainly Without Freedom, The Press Will Never Be Anything But Bad.
4th Of July
Media
Be Good
Fate Is Not In Man But Around Him
Fate
Men
Your Successes And Happiness Are Forgiven You Only If You Generously Consent To Share Them.
Happiness
Success
Happy
We Are Living In The Era Of Premeditation And The Perfect Crime. Our Criminals Are No Longer Helpless Children Who Could Plead Love As Their Excuse. On The Contrary, They Are Adults And The Have The Perfect Alibi: Philosophy, Which Can Be Used For Any Purpose - Even For Transforming Murderers Into Judges.
Children
Philosophy
Perfect
A Man Wants To Earn Money In Order To Be Happy, And His Whole Effort And The Best Of A Life Are Devoted To The Earning Of That Money. Happiness Is Forgotten; The Means Are Taken For The End.
Happiness
Money
Taken
To Feel Absolutely Right Is The Beginning Of The End.
Ends
Feels
Poor And Free Rather Than Rich And Enslaved. Of Course, Men Want To Be Both Rich And Free, And This Is What Leads Them At Times To Be Poor And Enslaved.
Men
Want
Rich
Then We Understand That Rebellion Cannot Exist Without A Strange Form Of Love. Those Who Find No Rest In God Or In History Are Condemned To Live For Those Who, Like Themselves, Cannot Live; In Fact, For The Humiliated.
Facts
Strange
Rebellion
True Debauchery Is Liberating Because It Creates No Obligations. In It You Possess Only Yourself, Hence It Remains The Favorite Pastime Of The Great Lovers Of Their Own Person.
Self Love
Debauchery
Lovers
We Rarely Confide In Those Who Are Better Than We Are.
Relationship
Money
A Person I Knew Used To Divide Human Beings Into Three Categories: Those Who Prefer To Have Nothing To Hide Rather Than Being Obliged To Lie, Those Who Prefer Lying To Having Nothing To Hide, And Finally Those Who Like Both Lying And The Hidden.
Lying
Three
Used
Purely Historical Thought Is Therefore Nihilistic: It Wholeheartedly Accepts The Evil Of History And In This Way Is Opposed To Rebellion.
History
Evil
Historical
What On Earth Prompted You To Take A Hand In This?" "i Don't Know. My… My Code Of Morals, Perhaps." "your Code Of Morals. What Code, If I May Ask?" "comprehension.
Hands
Earth
May
But When A Man Has Had Only Four Hours' Sleep He Isn't Sentimental. He Sees Things As They Are: That Is To Say, He Sees Them In The Garish Light Of Justice; Hideous, Witless Justice.
Sleep
Men
Light
Every Act Of Rebellion Expresses A Nostalgia For Innocence And An Appeal To The Essence Of Being.
Essence
Innocence
Nostalgia
A Man's Work Is Nothing But This Slow Trek To Rediscover, Through The Detours Of Art, Those Two Or Three Great And Simple Images In Whose Presence His Heart First Opened.
Art
Work
Simple
The Role Of The Intellectual Cannot Be To Excuse The Violence Of One Side And Condemn That Of The Other.
Intellectual
Roles
Violence
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