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Nihilism Is Not Only Despair And Negation, But Above All The Desire To Despair And To Negate.
-Albert Camus
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Nihilism Is Not Only

Albert Camus
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Nihilism Is Not Only Despair And Negation, But Above All The Desire To Despair And To Negate.

Understanding the Quote: "nihilism is not only despair and negation, but above all the desire..."

This quote by Albert Camus reflects deeply on the theme of despair. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Despair, Nihilism, Desire, 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 despair and nihilism. 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
Despair
Nihilism
Desire
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Logical
Finally, And Most Of All, Words Failed Him.
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Ends
Insight
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Men
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Artist
Night
The Love Of God Is A Hard Love. It Demands Total Self-surrender, Disdain Of Our Human Personality. And Yet It Alone Can Reconcile Us To Suffering And The Deaths Of Children, It Alone Can Justify Them, Since We Cannot Understand Them, And We Can Only Make God's Will Ours.
Children
Self
Personality
Just As All Thought, And Primarily That Of Non-signification, Signifies Something, So There Is No Art That Has No Signification.
Art
Meaning Of Life
Life Has No Meaning
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
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
The Nobility Of Our Calling Will Always Be Rooted In Two Commitments Difficult To Observe: Refusal To Lie About What We Know, And Resistance To Oppression.
Lying
Commitment
Writing
It Is Natural To Give A Clear View Of The World After Accepting The Idea That It Must Be Clear.
Views
Ideas
Giving
That Is Love, To Give Away Everything, To Sacrifice Everything, Without The Slightest Desire To Get Anything In Return.3
Love
Sacrifice
Giving
The Mistake That Men Make Is That They Do Not Believe In Theater. Otherwise, They Would Know That Every Man Is Allowed To Play Thecelestial Tragedies And To Become God. All He Has To Do Is Harden His Heart.
Mistake
Believe
Heart
On My Way Out I Was Even Going To Shake His Hand, But I Remembered Just In Time That I'd Killed A Man.
Men
Hands
Way
History Has Shown That The Less People Read, The More Books They Buy.
Book
People
No Excuses Ever, For Anyone; That Is My Principle At The Outset. I Deny The Good Intention, The Respectable Mistake, The Indiscretion, The Extenuating Circumstance. With Me There Is No Giving Of Absolution Or Blessing.
Mistake
Blessing
Giving
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
Whereas The Greeks Gave To Will The Boundaries Of Reason, We Have Come To Put The Will's Impulse In The Very Center Of Reason, Which Has, As A Result, Become Deadly.
Greek
Free Will
Boundaries
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
Fate Is Not In Man But Around Him
Fate
Men
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
At A Certain Level Of Suffering Or Injustice No One Can Do Anything For Anyone. Pain Is Solitary.
Pain
Suffering
Levels
This Is The Century Of Fear.
Fear
Century
A Man Who Has Become Conscious Of The Absurd Is For Ever Bound To It.
Men
Absurd
Conscious
A Loveless World Is A Dead World.
World
Loveless
Happiness Implied A Choice, And Within That Choice A Concerted Will, A Lucid Desire.
Happiness
Choices
Desire
The Primordial Sea Indefatigably Repeats The Same Words And Casts Up The Same Astonished Beings On The Same Sea-shore.
Sea
Casts
Shore
The Realization That Life Is Absurd Cannot Be An End, But Only A Beginning.
Realization
Life Is
Absurd
Thus I Progressed On The Surface Of Life, In The Realm Of Words As It Were, Never In Reality. All Those Books Barely Read, Those Friends Barely Loved, Those Cities Barely Visited, Those Women Barely Possessed! I Went Through The Gestures Out Of Boredom Or Absent-mindedness. Then Came Human Beings; They Wanted To Cling, But There Was Nothing To Cling To, And That Was Unfortunate--for Them. As For Me, I Forgot. I Never Remembered Anything But Myself.
Book
Reality
Cities
Men Cry Because Things Are Not What They Ought To Be.
Men
Suffering
Cry
To Cut Short This Question Of The Law Of Retaliation, We Must Note That Even In Its Primitive Form It Can Operate Only Between Two Individuals Of Whom One Is Absolutely Innocent And The Other Absolutely Guilty. The Victim, To Be Sure, Is Innocent. But Can The Society That Is Supposed To Represent The Victim Lay Claim To Innocence?
Cutting
Law
Two
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
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
For Ever, I Shall Be A Stranger To Myself.
Stranger
Sisyphus
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
Utopia Is That Which Is In Contradiction With Reality.
Reality
Utopia
Contradiction
If I Convince Myself That This Life Has No Other Aspect Than That Of The Absurd, If I Feel That Its Whole Equilibrium Depends On That Perpetual Opposition Between My Conscious Revolt And The Darkness In Which It Struggles, If I Admit That My Freedom Has No Meaning Except In Relation To Its Limited Fate, Then I Must Say That What Counts Is Not The Best Living But The Most Living.
Struggle
Fate
Darkness
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
Everything Considered, A Determined Soul Will Always Manage.
Soul
Determined
Manage
You Always Get Exaggerated Notions Of Things You Don't Know Anything About.
Notion
Knows
Exaggerated
On Certain Mornings, As We Turn A Corner, An Exquisite Dew Falls On Our Heart And Then Vanishes. But The Freshness Lingers, And This, Always, Is What The Heart Needs. The Earth Must Have Risen In Just Such A Light The Morning The World Was Born.
Morning
Fall
Heart
It Is Not True That The Heart Wears Out - But The Body Creates This Illusion.
Heart
Body
Illusion
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
Accept Life, Take It As It Is? Stupid. The Means Of Doing Otherwise? Far From Our Having To Take It, It Is Life That Possesses Us And On Occasion Shuts Our Mouths.
Life
Stupid
Mean
A Man Devoid Of Hope And Conscious Of Being So Has Ceased To Belong To The Future.
Men
Conscious
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
In Order To Exist Just Once In The World, It Is Necessary Never Again To Exist.
Order
Atheism
World
It Is Better For The Intellectual Not To Talk All The Time. To Begin With, It Would Exhaust Him, And, Above All, It Would Keep Him From Thinking. He Must Create If He Can, First And Foremost, Especially If His Creation Does Not Side-step The Problems Of His Time.
Thinking
Intellectual
Doe
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
A Taste For Truth At Any Cost Is A Passion Which Spares Nothing.
Life
Truth
Passion
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
The Ancients, Even Though They Believed In Destiny , Believed Primarily In Nature , In Which They Participated Wholeheartedly. To Rebel Against Nature Amounted To Rebelling Against Oneself. It Was Butting One's Head Against A Wall.
Wall
Destiny
Rebel
…there's No Question Of Heroism In All This. It's A Matter Of Common Decency. That's An Idea Which May Make Some People Smile, But The Only Means Of Fighting A Plague Is - Common Decency.
Mean
Fighting
Common Decency
In Every Rebellion Is To Be Found The Metaphysical Demand For Unity, The Impossibility Of Capturing It, And The Construction Of A Substitute Universe.
Unity
Demand
Rebellion
There Is No Fate That Cannot Be Surmounted By Scorn.
Change
Fate
Destiny
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
Too Many Have Dispensed With Generosity In Order To Practice Charity.
Order
Practice
Generosity
Retaliation Is Related To Nature And Instinct, Not To Law. Law, By Definition, Cannot Obey The Same Rules As Nature.
Law
Punishment
Intuition
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