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It Is A Well-known Fact That We Always Recognize Our Homeland At The Moment We Are About To Lose It.
-Albert Camus
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It Is A Well-known

Albert Camus
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It Is A Well-known Fact That We Always Recognize Our Homeland At The Moment We Are About To Lose It.

Understanding the Quote: "it is a well-known fact that we always recognize our homeland at..."

This quote by Albert Camus reflects deeply on the theme of facts. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Facts, Well Known, Homeland, 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 facts and well known. 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
Facts
Well Known
Homeland
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For There Is Merely Bad Luck In Not Being Loved; There Is Misfortune In Not Loving.
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Luck
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We Have To Live And Let Live In Order To Create What We Are.
Order
Idealism
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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
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Maman Used To Say That You Can Always Find Something To Be Happy About. In My Prison, When The Sky Turned Red And A New Day Slipped Into My Cell, I Found Out That She Was Right.
Cells
Sky
New Day
I Continue To Believe That This World Has No Ultimate Meaning. But I Know That Something In It Has A Meaning And That Is Man, Because He Is The Only Creature To Insist On Having One
Believe
Men
World
In Truth, I Was So Good At Being A Man, With Such Plenitude And Simplicity, That I Thought I Was Something Of A Superman.
Men
Simplicity
Arrogance
I Know That Man Is Capable Of Great Deeds. But If He Isn't Capable Of Great Emotion, Well, He Leaves Me Cold.
Life
Men
Deeds
He Was Conscious Of The Disastrous Fact That Love And Desire Must Be Expressed In The Same Way.
Desire
Way
Facts
A Guilty Conscience Needs To Confess. A Work Of Art Is A Confession.
Art
Hipster
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We All Have A Weakness For Beauty.
Weakness
Great Novelists Are Philosopher Novelists - That Is, The Contrary Of Thesis-writers.
Writing
Novelists
Philosopher
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
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Who Taught You All This, Doctor?" The Reply Came Promptly: "suffering.
Doctors
Suffering
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And Then Came Human Beings; Humans Wanted To Cling But There Was Nothing To Cling To.
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We Must Admit That Today Conformity Is On The Left. To Be Sure, The Right Is Not Brilliant. But The Left Is In Complete Decadence, A Prisoner Of Words, Caught In Its Own Vocabulary, Capable Merely Of Stereotyped Replies, Constantly At A Loss When Faced With Truth, From Which It Nevertheless Claimed To Derive Its Laws. The Left Is Schizophrenic And Needs Doctoring Through Pitiless Self-criticism, Exercise Of The Heart, Close Reasoning, And A Little Modesty.
Heart
Loss
Exercise
Every Man, And For Stronger Reasons, Every Artist, Wants To Be Recognized. So Do I.
Artist
Men
Stronger
There Is A Terrible Emptiness In Me, An Indifference That Hurts.
Hurt
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Love Is The Kind Of Illness That Does Not Spare The Intelligent Or The Dull.
Love
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The Truth Is That Nothing Is Less Sensational Than Pestilence, And By Reason Of Their Very Duration Great Misfortunes Are Monotonous.
Pestilence
Duration
Truth Is
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
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Men
…. Query: How Contrive Not To Waste One's Time? Answer: By Being Fully Aware Of It All The While. Ways In Which This Can Be Done: By Spending One's Days On An Uneasy Chair In A Dentist's Waiting-room; By Remaining On One's Balcony All Of A Sunday Afternoon; By Listening To Lectures In A Language On Doesn't Know; By Traveling By The Longest And Least-convenient Train Routes, And Of Course Standing All The Way; By Lining Up At The Box-office Of Theaters And Then Not Buying A Seat; And So Forth.
Sunday
Waiting Rooms
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From The Evening Breeze To This Hand On My Shoulder, Everything Has Its Truth.
Hands
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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.
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We're Going Forward, But Nothing Changes.
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.
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You Know, A Man Always Judges Himself By The Balance He Can Strike Between The Needs Of His Body And The Demands Of His Mind. You're Judging Yourself Now, Mersaut, And You Don't Like The Sentence.
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No Ends, Simply Means.
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Forever I Shall Be A Stranger To Myself. In Psychology As In Logic, There Are Truths But No Truth.
Forever
Psychology
Logic
In Every Guilty Man, There Is Some Innocence. This Makes Every Absolute Condemnation Revolting.
Men
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L'absurde Est La Notion Essentielle Et La Premie' Re Ve? Rite? . The Absurd Is The Fundamental Idea And The First Truth.
Ideas
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Do Not Be Afraid Of Spending Quality Time By Yourself. Find Meaning Or Don’t Find Meaning But “steal” Some Time And Give It Freely And Exclusively To Your Own Self. Opt For Privacy And Solitude. That Doesn’t Make You Antisocial Or Cause You To Reject The Rest Of The World. But You Need To Breathe. And You Need To Be.
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The Most Important Thing You Do Everyday You Live Is Deciding Not To Kill Yourself.
Philosophical
Everyday
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In Oran, As Elsewhere, For Want Of Time And Thought, People Have To Love One Another Without Knowing It.
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It Is Natural To Give A Clear View Of The World After Accepting The Idea That It Must Be Clear.
Views
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Giving
Against Eternal Injustice, Man Must Assert Justice, And To Protest Against The Universe Of Grief, He Must Create Happiness.
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I Like People Who Dream Or Talk To Themselves Interminably; I Like Them, For They Are Double. They Are Here And Elsewhere.
Dream
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Elsewhere
When The Body Is Sad, The Heart Languishes.
Heart
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Languish
No Longer Were There Individual Destinies; Only A Collective Destiny, Made Of Plague And Emotions Shared By All.
Destiny
Emotion
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All That Remains Is A Fate Whose Outcome Alone Is Fatal. Outside Of That Single Fatality Of Death, Everything, Joy Or Happiness, Is Liberty. A World Remains Of Which Man Is The Sole Master. What Bound Him Was The Illusion Of Another World. The Outcome Of His Thought, Ceasing To Be Renunciatory, Flowers In Images. It Frolics---in Myths, To Be Sure, But Myths With No Other Depth Than That Of Human Suffering And, Like It, Inexhaustible. Not The Divine Fable That Amuses And Blinds, But The Terrestrial Face, Gesture, And Drama In Which Are Summed Up A Difficult Wisdom And An Ephemeral Passion.
Drama
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Men Who Have Greatness Within Them Don't Go In For Politics.
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Men
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In That Daily Effort In Which Intelligence And Passion Mingle And Delight Each Other, The Absurd Man Discovers A Discipline That Will Make Up The Greatest Of His Strengths. The Required Diligence And Doggedness And Lucidity Thus Resemble The Conqueror's Attitude. To Create Is Likewise To Give A Shape To One's Fate. For All These Characters, Their Work Defines Them At Least As Much As It Is Defined By Them. The Actor Taught Us This: There Is No Frontier Between Being And Appearing.
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Nothing In The World Is Worth Turning One's Back On What One Loves.
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But What Is Happiness Except The Simple Harmony Between A Man And The Life He Leads?
Inspirational
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Sometimes At Night I Would Sleep Open-eyed Underneath A Sky Dripping With Stars. I Was Alive Then.
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Great Ideas Come Into The World As Gently As Doves.
Inspiring
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World
Great Ideas, It Has Been Said, Come Into The World As Gently As Doves. Perhaps Then, If We Listen Attentively, We Shall Hear Amid The Uproar Of Empires And Nations, A Faint Flutter Of Wings, The Gentle Stirring Of Life And Hope. Some Will Say That This Hope Lies In A Nation; Others In A Man. I Believe Rather That It Is Awakened, Revived, Nourished, By Millions Of Solitary Individuals Whose And Works Every Day Negate Frontiers And The Crudest Implications Of History.
Lying
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Men
The Struggle To Reach The Top Is Itself Enough To Fulfill The Heart Of Man. One Must Believe That Sisyphus Is Happy.
Believe
Struggle
Heart
A Profound Thought Is In A Constant State Of Becoming; It Adopts The Experience Of A Life And Assumes Its Shape.
Profound
Shapes
Becoming
No Matter How The Sun Shone, The Sea Held Forth No More Promises.
Sea
Promise
Matter
There Is No Frontier Between Being And Appearing.
Frontiers
Appearing
He Seemed So Certain About Everything, Didn't He? And Yet None Of His Certainties Was Worth One Hair Of A Woman's Head. He Wasn't Even Sure He Was Alive, Because He Was Living Like A Dead Man.
Men
Hair
Alive
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
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
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Two
...the Habit Of Despair Is Worse Than Despair Itself.
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Despair
Habit
The Soul Of A Murderer Is Blind
Soul
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Outside Of That Single Fatality Of Death, Everything, Joy Or Happiness, Is Liberty.
Joy
Liberty
Sisyphus
There Can Be No Question Of Masking The Evidence, Of Suppressing The Absurd By Denying One Of The Terms Of Its Equation. It Is Essential To Know Whether One Can Live With It Or Whether, On The Other Hand, Logic Commands One To Die Of It.
Hands
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Logic
Every Stone Here Sweats With Suffering, I Know That. I Have Never Looked At Them Without A Feeling Of Anguish. But Deep In My Heart I Know That The Most Wretched Among You Have Seen A Divine Face Emerge From Their Darkness. That Is The Face You Are Asked To See.
Heart
Sweat
Darkness
What Is Called A Reason For Living Is Also An Excellent Reason For Dying.
Dying
Reason
Excellent
The Act Of Love . . . Is A Confession. Selfishness Screams Aloud, Vanity Shows Off, Or Else True Generosity Reveals Itself.
Love
Selfish
Vanity
We Are All Special Cases.
Appreciation
Teacher
Special
Some Cry: 'love Me!!' Others: 'don't Love Me!!' But A Certain Genus, The Worst And Most Unhappy, Cries: 'don't Love Me And Be Faithful To Me!!'
Love
Faith
Unhappy
Some People Talk In Their Sleep. Lecturers Talk While Other People Sleep.
Sleep
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Revolution, In Order To Be Creative, Cannot Do Without Either A Moral Or Metaphysical Rule To Balance The Insanity Of History.
Order
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Thinking Is Learning All Over Again How To See, Directing One's Consciousness, Making Of Every Image A Privileged Place.
Thinking
Consciousness
Sisyphus
Happiness Implied A Choice, And Within That Choice A Concerted Will, A Lucid Desire.
Happiness
Choices
Desire
The Most Eloquent Eulogy Of Capitalism Was Made By Its Greatest Enemy. Marx Is Only Anti-capitalist In So Far As Capitalism Is Out Of Date.
Eulogy
Enemy
Made
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?
Men
Important
Execution
In Order To Exist Just Once In The World, It Is Necessary Never Again To Exist.
Order
Atheism
World
There Is In Me An Anarchy And Frightful Disorder. Creating Makes Me Die A Thousand Deaths, Because It Means Making Order, And My Entire Being Rebels Against Order. But Without It I Would Die, Scattered To The Winds.
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Order
Ah Cher Ami, How Poor In Invention Men Are! They Are They Always Think One Commits Suicide For A Reason. But It's Quite Possible To Commit Suicide For Two Reasons. No, That Never Occurs To Them. So What's The Good Of Dying Intentionally, Of Sacrificing Yourself To The Idea You Want People To Have Of You? Once You Are Dead, They Will Take Advantage Of It To Attribute Idiotic Or Vulgar Motives To Your Action. Martyrs, Cher Ami, Must Choose Between Being Forgotten, Mocked, Or Made Use Of. As For Being Understood--never!
Suicide
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Thinking
Man Wants To Live, But It Is Useless To Hope That This Desire Will Dictate All His Actions.
Men
Desire
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False Judges Are Held Up In The World's Admiration And I Alone Know The True Ones.
Judging
World
Admiration
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
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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
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I Always Found Misogyny Vulgar And Stupid, And I Found Almost All The Women I Have Known To Be My Betters. However, Placing Them So High, I Used Them More Often Than I Served Them. How Does One Make Sense Of This?
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Men
Doe
Utopia Is That Which Is In Contradiction With Reality.
Reality
Utopia
Contradiction
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
Liberty Is The Right Not To Lie.
Lying
Liberty
But 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 Schoolteacher Is Well Aware Of This. And The Question Is Not One Of Knowing What Punishment Or Reward Attends The Making Of This Calculation. The Question Is One Of Knowing Whether Two And Two Do Make Four
Men
Two
Knowing
The Spirit Of Rebellion Can Only Exist In A Society Where A Theoretical Equality Conceals Great Factual Inequalities. The Problem Of Rebellion, Therefore, Has No Meaning Except Within Our Own Western Society.
Spirit
Problem
Rebellion
Have Pity, Lord, On Those Who Love And Are Separated.
Love
Separation
Pity
Men Cry Because Things Are Not What They Ought To Be.
Men
Suffering
Cry
That Is Love, To Give Away Everything, To Sacrifice Everything, Without The Slightest Desire To Get Anything In Return.3
Love
Sacrifice
Giving
[paris] Is Dirty. It Has Pigeons And Black Yards. The People Have White Skin.
Dirty
Cities
Paris
Absolute Virtue Is Impossible And The Republic Of Forgiveness Leads, With Implacable Logic, To The Republic Of The Guillotine.
Forgiveness
Republic
Impossible
After Awhile You Could Get Used To Anything.
Used
For Who Would Dare To Assert That Eternal Happiness Can Compensate For A Single Moment's Human Suffering
Suffering
Eternal Happiness
Moments
I Felt As I Hadn't Felt For Ages. I Had A Foolish Desire To Burst Into Tears. For The First Time I'd Realized How All These People Loathed Me.
People
Tears
Age
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
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
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A Régime [nazism] Which Invented A Biological Foreign Policy Was Obviously Acting Against Its Own Best Interests. But At Least It Obeyed Its Own Particular Logic.
Acting
Nazism
Logic
You Will Never Live If You Are Looking For The Meaning Of Life.
Life
Happiness
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Beauty, No Doubt, Does Not Make Revolutions. But A Day Will Come When Revolutions Will Have Need Of Beauty.
Doubt
Doe
Needs
Virtue Cannot Separate Itself From Reality Without Becoming A Principle Of Evil.
Reality
Evil
Principles
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
If Something Is Going To Happen To Me, I Want To Be There.
Life
Want
Happens
As For Hitler, His Professed Religion Unhesitatingly Juxtaposed The God-providence And Valhalla. Actually His God Was An Argument At A Political Meeting And A Manner Of Reaching An Impressive Climax At The End Of Speeches.
Political
Atheism
Valhalla
If There Is A Soul, It Is A Mistake To Believe That It Is Given To Us Fully Created. It Is Created Here, Throughout A Whole Life. And Living Is Nothing Else But That Long And Painful Bringing Forth.
Mistake
Believe
Long
The Only Way To Deal With An Unfree World Is To Become So Absolutely Free That Your Very Existence Is An Act Of Rebellion.
Freedom
Badass
Bad Ass
Finally, And Most Of All, Words Failed Him.
Don't Believe Your Friends When They Ask You To Be Honest With Them. All They Really Want Is To Be Maintained In The Good Opinion They Have Of Themselves.
Friendship
Honesty
Believe
For The First Time In A Long Time I Thought About Maman. I Felt As If I Understood Why At The End Of Her Life She Had Taken A 'fiancé,' Why She Had Played At Beginning Again. Even There, In That Home Where Lives Were Fading Out, Evening Was A Kind Of Wistful Respite. So Close To Death, Maman Must Have Felt Free Then And Ready To Live It All Again. Nobody, Nobody Had The Right To Cry Over Her. And I Felt Ready To Live It All Again Too.
Taken
Home
Long
One Must Place One's Principles In Big Things. For The Small, Graciousness Will Suffice.
Principles
Graciousness
Bigs
One Plays At Being Immortal And After A Few Weeks One Doesn't Even Know Whether Or Not One Can Hang On Till The Next Day.
Play
Next Day
Week
Life Can Be Magnificent And Overwhelming -- That Is The Whole Tragedy. Without Beauty, Love, Or Danger It Would Almost Be Easy To Live.
Life
Tragedy
Easy
All Great Deeds And All Great Thoughts Have A Ridiculous Beginning.
Creativity
New Beginnings
Bad Ass
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
Whatever Prevents You From Doing Your Work Has Become Your Work.
Work
Beginning To Think Is Beginning To Be Undermined.
Thinking
To Remain A Man In Today's World, One Must Have Not Only Unfailing Energy And Unwavering Intensity, One Must Also Have A Little Luck.
Men
Luck
Energy
In The Vast Reaches Of The Dry, Cold Night, Thousands Of Stars Were Constantly Appearing, And Their Sparkling Icicles, Loosened At Once, Began To Slip Gradually Toward The Horizon.
Stars
Night
Horizon
God Put Self-pity By The Side Of Despair Like The Cure By The Side Of The Disease.
God
Self
Despair
My Great Idea Is That We Must Forgive The Pope. First Of All, He Needs It More Than Anyone Else. Besides, It Is The Only Way Of Placing Oneself Above Him.
Forgiveness
Ideas
Forgiving
Their Guilt Made Me Eloquent Because I Was Not Its Victim.
Guilt
Victim
Made
Nobody Realizes That Some People Expend Tremendous Energy Merely To Be Normal.
Funny
Positivity
Bad Ass
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
Psychology Is Action, Not Thinking About Oneself.
Thinking
Psychology
Action
Life Is The Sum Of Your Choices.
Opportunity
Choices
Ethics
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.
Christian
Heart
Men
We Spend Our Days In Deliberating, And We End Them Without Coming To Any Resolve.
Thinking
Ends
Resolve
It Is Immoral Not To Tell.
Writing
Immoral
The Important Thing Isn't The Soundness Or Otherwise Of The Argument, But For It To Make You Think.
Thinking
Make You Think
Important
So The Thing That Bothered Me Most Was That The Condemned Man Had To Hope The Machine Would Work The First Time.
Men
Machines
Firsts
Whoever Gives Nothing, Has Nothing. The Greatest Misfortune Is Not To Be Unloved, But Not To Love.
Giving
Unloved
Misfortunes
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
My Dear Friend, We Mustn't Give Them Even The Slightest Excuse To Judge Us! Otherwise, We End Up In Pieces.
Giving
Judging
Pieces
In A Universe Suddenly Divested Of Illusion 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.
Memories
Fear
Home
Over There, In Europe, All Was Shame And Anger. Here It Was Exile Or Solitude, Among These Languid And Agitated Madmen Who Danced In Order To Die.
Anger
Order
Europe
After All, I Do Not Have So Many Ways Of Proving That I Am Free. We Is Always Free At The Expense Of Someone Else. It Is A Bother,but It Is Normal.
Freedom
Way
Normal
To Live Is In Itself A Value Judgment. To Breathe Is To Judge.
Judging
Judgment
Breathe
Instead Of Killing And Dying In Order To Produce The Being That We Are Not, We Have To Live And Let Live In Order To Create What We Are.
Order
Dying
Killing
A Novel Is Never Anything But A Philosophy Expressed In Images. And In A Good Novel The Philosophy Has Disappeared Into The Images.
Philosophy
Novel
Women Are All We Know Of Paradise On This Earth.
Earth
Paradise
Gender
Every Ideology Is Contrary To Human Psychology.
Psychology
Ideology
Humans
The World Is Never Quiet, Even Its Silence Eternally Resounds With The Same Notes, In Vibrations Which Escape Our Ears. As For Those That We Perceive, They Carry Sounds To Us, Occasionally A Chord, Never A Melody.
Silence
Sound
Ears
The Absurd Is Lucid Reason Noting Its Limits.
Limits
Reason
Absurd
Mistakes Are Joyful, Truth Infernal.
Mistake
Philosophical
Joyful
You Will Never Be Able To Experience Everything. So, Please, Do Poetical Justice To Your Soul And Simply Experience Yourself.
Experience Yourself
Justice
Soul
But It's Not Easy. I've Been Thinking It Over For Years. While We Loved Each Other We Didn't Need Words To Make Ourselves Understood. But People Don't Love Forever. A Time Came When I Should Have Found The Words To Keep Her With Me, Only I Couldn't.
Thinking
Should Have
Years
There Are Plagues, And There Are Victims, And It's The Duty Of Good Men Not To Join Forces With The Plagues.
Men
Good Man
Goodness
Il Y A Dans Les Hommes Plus De Choses A' Admirer Que De Choses A' Me Priser. There Are More Things To Admire In People Than To Despise.
People
Admirer
Despise
I Had Only A Little Time Left And I Didn't Want To Waste It On God.
Time
Want
Littles
There Is No Fate That Cannot Be Surmounted By Scorn.
Change
Fate
Destiny
... I Suppose That It Is Not So Easy To Go Home And It Takes A Bit Of Time To Make A Son Out Of A Stranger.
Family
Home
Son
Je Puis Nier Une Chose Sans Me Croire Obligé De La Salir Ou De Retirer Aux Autres Le Droit D'y Croire.
Atheist
But Above All, In Order To Be, Never Try To Seem.
Order
Trying
Seems
A Man Who Has Become Conscious Of The Absurd Is For Ever Bound To It.
Men
Absurd
Conscious
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
One Must Imagine Sisyphus Happy.
Struggle
Imagine
Flakes
Sometimes, Carrying On, Just Carrying On, Is The Superhuman Achievement.
Inspirational
Moving On
Encouraging
Absolute Justice Is Achieved By The Suppression Of All Contradiction, Therefore It Destroys Freedom.
Wisdom
Justice
Liberty
I Do Not Believe In God And I Am Not An Atheist.
Atheist
Believe
Religion
Most Men Are Like Me. They Cannot Live In A Universe Where The Most Bizarre Thought Can In One Second Enter Into The Realm Of Reality--where, Most Often, It Does Enter, Like A Knife In A Heart.
Heart
Reality
Men
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
I Am Just Coming Out Of Five Years Of Night, And This Orgy Of Violent Lights Gives Me For The First Time The Impression Of A New Continent. An Enormous, 50-foot High Camel Billboard : A Gi With His Mouth Wide Open Blows Enormous Puffs Of Real Smoke. So Much Bad Taste Hardly Seems Imaginable.
New York
Real
Blow
Integrity Needs No Rules.
Integrity
Needs
Ethics
But - I Cannot Make A Choice. I Have My Own Sorrow, But I Suffer With Him, Too; I Share His Pain. I Understand All - That Is My Trouble.
Pain
Choices
Suffering
Every Artist Preserves Deep Within Him A Single Source From Which, Throughout His Lifetime, He Draws What He Is, And What He Says. When The Source Dries Up, The Work Withers And Crumbles.
Artist
Lifetime
Source
Liberty Is Dangerous, As Hard To Get Along With As It Is Exciting.
Liberty
Exciting
Dangerous
The Slave And Those Whose Present Life Is Miserable And Who Can Find No Consolation In The Heavens Are Assured That At Least The Future Belongs To Them. The Future Is The Only Kind Of Property That The Masters Willingly Concede To The Slaves.
Heaven
Kind
Life Is
Mostly, I Could Tell, I Made Him Feel Uncomfortable. He Didn't Understand Me, And He Was Sort Of Holding It Against Me. I Felt The Urge To Reassure Him That I Was Like Everybody Else, Just Like Everybody Else. But Really There Wasn't Much Point, And I Gave Up The Idea Out Of Laziness.
Ideas
Laziness
Made
The Best Are Led To Make Greater Demands Upon Themselves. As For Those Who Succumb, They Did Not Deserve To Survive.
Demand
Greater
Deserve
We're All Special Cases.
Special
Cases
All That Remains Is A Fate Whose Outcome Alone Is Fatal. Outside Of That Single Fatality Of Death, Everything, Joy Or Happiness, Is Liberty. A World Remains Of Which Man Is The Sole Master. What Bound Him Was The Illusion Of Another World.
Fate
Men
Joy
Man Is An Idea, And A Precious Small Idea Once He Turns His Back On Love.
Love
Men
Precious Stones
Nothing Can Discourage The Appetite For Divinity In The Heart Of Man.
Heart
Men
Divinity
Every Writer, Big Or Small, Needs To Say Or Write That The Genius Is Always Hissed At By His Contemporaries. Naturally, This Is Not True, It Happens Only Occasionally And Often By Chance. But This Need Within The Writer Is Enlightening.
Writing
Needs
Genius
There Are Crimes Of Passion And Crimes Of Logic. The Boundary Between Them Is Not Clearly Defined.
Life
Passion
Logic
The Words That Reverberate For Us At The Confines Of This Long Adventure Of Rebellion Are Not Formulas For Optimism, For Which We Have No Possible Use In The Extremities Of Our Unhappiness, But Words Of Courage And Intelligence Which, On The Shores Of The Eternal Seas, Even Have The Qualities Of Virtue.
Adventure
Sea
Long
To Assert In Any Case That A Man Must Be Absolutely Cut Off From Society Because He Is Absolutely Evil Amounts To Saying That Society Is Absolutely Good, And No-one In His Right Mind Will Believe This Today.
Believe
Cutting
Men
The Myth Of Unlimited Production Brings War In Its Train As Inevitably As Clouds Announce A Storm.
War
Clouds
Storm
What's Natural Is The Microbe. All The Rest-heath, Integrity, Purity (if You Like)-is A Product Of The Human Will, Of A Vigilance That Must Never Falter. The Good Man, The Man Who Infects Hardly Anyone, Is The Man Who Has The Fewest Lapses Of Attention.
Integrity
Men
Good Man
What More Ghastly Image Can Be Called Up Than That Of A Man Betrayed By His Body Who, Simply Because He Did Not Die In Time, Lives Out The Comedy While Awaiting The End, Face To Face With That God He Does Not Adore, Serving Him As He Served Life, Kneeling Before A Void And Arms Outstretched Toward A Heaven Without Eloquence That He Knows To Be Also Without Depth?
Men
Heaven
Body
To Govern Means To Pillage, As Everyone Knows.
Mean
Knows
...the Play Of The Toughest And Most Lucid Mind Are At The Same Time Both Lavished Andsquandered.
Play
Mind
... 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
You Must Have A Love, A Great Love, To Ensure An Alibi At Unjustified Despairs That Conquer All Of Us
Great Love
Despair
Conquer
In Fact, It Comes To This: Nobody Is Capable Of Really Thinking About Anyone, Even In The Worst Calamity. For Really To Think About Someone Means Thinking About That Person Every Minute Of The Day, Without Letting One’s Thoughts Be Diverted By Anything- By Meals, By A Fly That Settles On One’s Cheek, By Household Duties, Or By A Sudden Itch Somewhere. But There Are Always Flies And Itches. That’s Why Life Is Difficult To Live.
Mean
Thinking
Meals
It Is In The Thick Of Calamity That One Gets Hardened To The Truth - In Other Words, To Silence.
Silence
Calamity
Plague
Don't Lies Eventually Lead To The Truth? And Don't All My Stories, True Or False, Tend Toward The Same Conclusion? Don't They All Have The Same Meaning? So What Does It Matter Whether They Are True Or False If, In Both Cases, They Are Significant Of What I Have Been And What I Am? Sometimes It Is Easier To See Clearly Into The Liar Than Into The Man Who Tells The Truth. Truth, Like Light, Blinds. Falsehood, On The Contrary, Is A Beautiful Twilight That Enhances Every Object.
Beautiful
Liars
Lying
The Poor Man Whom Everyone Speaks Of, The Poor Man Whom Everyone Pities, One Of The Repulsive Poor From Whom Charitable Souls Keep Their Distance, He Has Still Said Nothing. Or, Rather, He Has Spoken Through The Voice Of Victor Hugo, Zola, Richepin. At Least, They Said So. And These Shameful Impostures Fed Their Authors. Cruel Irony, The Poor Man Tormented With Hunger Feeds Those Who Plead His Case.
Distance
Men
Voice
We All Carry Within Us Places Of Exile, Our Crimes, Our Ravages. Our Task Is Not To Unleash Them On The World; It Is To Transform Them In Ourselves And Others.
Tasks
World
Crime
I Know Simply That The Sky Will Last Longer Than I.
Sky
Lasts
Knows
I Used To Advertise My Loyalty And I Don't Believe There Is A Single Person I Loved That I Didn't Eventually Betray.
Relationship
Loyalty
Betrayal
Too Many Have Dispensed With Generosity In Order To Practice Charity.
Order
Practice
Generosity
I Looked Up At The Mass Of Signs And Stars In The Night Sky And Laid Myself Open For The First Time To The Benign Indifference Of The World.
Stars
Night
Sky
One Grows Out Of Pity When It's Useless.
Useless
Pity
Grows
In Fact, Other People Create For Lack Of Power. I, On The Other Hand, Do Not Need A Work: I Live.
Life
Creativity
Power
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
Ah! My Friend, For Whomever Is Alone, Without A God And Without A Master, The Weight Of Time Is Terrible. One Must Then Choose A Master, God Being Out Of Style.
Time
Style
Liberty
The Mind's Deepest Desire, Even In Its Most Elaborate Operations, Parallels Man's Unconscious Feeling In The Face Of His Universe: It Is An Insistence Upon Familiarity, An Appetite For Clarity.
Men
Feelings
Mind
No Matter What Cause One Defends, It Will Suffer Permanent Disgrace If One Resorts To Blind Attacks On Crowds Of Innocent People.
People
Suffering
Crowds
I Don't Want To Be A Genius-i Have Enough Problems Just Trying To Be A Man.
Men
Justice
Trying
I Have No Idea What's Awaiting Me, Or What Will Happen When This All Ends. For The Moment I Know This: There Are Sick People And They Need Curing.
Compassion
Ideas
Sick
We Come Into The World Laden With The Weight Of An Infinite Necessity.
World
Weight
Infinite
Beauty Is Unbearable, Drives Us To Despair, Offering Us For A Minute The Glimpse Of An Eternity That We Should Like To Stretch Out Over The Whole Of Time.
Love
Beauty
Time
Thus, In A Middle Course Between These Heights And Depths, They Drifted Through Life Rather Than Lived, The Prey Of Aimless Days And Sterile Memories, Like Wandering Shadows That Could Have Acquired Substance Only By Consenting To Root Themselves In The Solid Earth Of Their Distress.
Memories
Roots
Shadow
The True Work Of Art Is Always On The Human Scale. It Is Essentially The One That Says, 'less.
Art
Simplicity
Scales
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