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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.
-Albert Camus
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Over There, In Europe,

Albert Camus
...
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.

Understanding the Quote: "over there, in europe, all was shame and anger. here it was..."

This quote by Albert Camus reflects deeply on the theme of anger. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Anger, Order, Europe, 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 anger and order. 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
Anger
Order
Europe
More From Albert Camus
What I Believe To Be True I Must Therefore Preserve. What Seems To Me So Obvious, Even Against Me, I Must Support.
Believe
Support
Obvious
... 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
The Innocent Is The Person Who Explains Nothing
Life
Innocence
Innocent
Absolute Justice Is Achieved By The Suppression Of All Contradiction, Therefore It Destroys Freedom.
Wisdom
Justice
Liberty
To Live Is To Hurt Others, And Through Others, To Hurt Oneself. Cruel Earth! How Can We Manage Not To Touch Anything? To Find What Ultimate Exile?
Hurt
Earth
Injury
What Is A Firm Hand To Me, Of What Use To Me Is This Astonishing Power If I Cannot Change The Order Of Things, If I Cannot Make The Sun Set In The East, That Suffering Diminish And That Beings No Longer Die?
Power
Hands
Order
It Is Easier To Kill What We Do Not Know.
Easier
Knows
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
In Fact, Other People Create For Lack Of Power. I, On The Other Hand, Do Not Need A Work: I Live.
Life
Creativity
Power
From The Moment Absurdity Is Recognized, It Becomes A Passion, The Most Harrowing Of All. But Whether Or Not One Can Live With One's Passions, Whether Or Not One Can Accept Their Law, Which Is To Burn The Heart They Simultaneously Exalt - That Is The Whole Question.
Passion
Heart
Law
Even When One Sits In The Prisoner's Dock, It Is Interesting To Hear Talk About Oneself.
Interesting
Trials
Docks
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 Memories, Without Hope, They Lived For The Moment Only. Indeed, The Here And Now Had Come To Mean Everything To Them. For There Is No Denying That The Plague Had Gradually Killed Off In All Of Us The Faculty Not Of Love Only But Even Of Friendship. Naturally Enough, Since Love Asks Something Of The Future, And Nothing Was Left Us But A Series Of Present Moments.
Memories
Mean
Moments
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
But All The Long Speeches, All The Interminable Days And Hours That People Had Spent Talking About My Soul, Had Left Me With The Impression Of A Colorless Swirling River That Was Making Me Dizzy.
Rivers
Talking
Long
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
Life Is The Sum Of Your Choices.
Opportunity
Choices
Ethics
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
Flower
Passion
There Will Be No Lasting Peace Either In The Heart Of Individuals Or In Social Customs Until Death Is Outlawed.
Death
Peace
Heart
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.
Money
Men
Would Be
Who Taught You All This, Doctor?" The Reply Came Promptly: "suffering.
Doctors
Suffering
Taught
I Can Negate Everything Of That Part Of Me That Lives On Vague Nostalgias, Except This Desire For Unity, This Longing To Solve, This Need For Clarity And Cohesion. I Can Refute Everything In This World Surrounding Me That Offends Or Enraptures Me, Except This Chaos, This Sovereign Chance And This Divine Equivalence Which Springs From Anarchy. I Don't Know Whether This World Has Meaning That Transcends It. But I Know That I Do Not Know That Meaning And That It Is Impossible For Me Just Now To Know It. What Can A Meaning Outside My Condition Mean To Me? I Can Understand Only In Human Terms.
Spring
Mean
Unity
I Like These People Swarming On The Sidewalks, Wedged Into A Little Space Of Houses And Canals, Hemmed In By Fogs, Cold Lands, And The Sea Streaming Like A Wet Wash. I Like Them, For They Are Double. They Are Here And Elsewhere.
Space
Fog
Sea
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
Since The Order Of The World Is Shaped By Death, Mightn't It Be Better For God If We Refuse To Believe In Him, And Struggle With All Our Might Against Death Without Raising Our Eyes Towards The Heaven Where He Sits In Silence?
Believe
Struggle
Eye
Ironic Philosophies Produce Passionate Works.
Philosophy
Ironic
Passionate
Moreover, Most People, Assuming They Had Not Altogether Abandoned Religious Observances, Or Did Not Combine Them Naively With A Thoroughly Immoral Way Of Living, Had Replace Normal Religious Practice By More Or Less Extravagant Superstitions.
Religious
Practice
People
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
The Current Motto For All Of Us Can Only Be This: Without Giving Up Anything On The Plane Of Justice, Yield Nothing On The Plane Of Freedom.
Giving Up
Giving
Justice
As Soon As One Does Not Kill Oneself, One Must Keep Silent About Life.
Death
Suicide
Silence
How Hard It Must Be To Live Only With What One Knows And What One Remembers, Cut Off From What One Hopes For!
Cutting
Remember
Knows
There Always Comes A Time When One Must Choose Between Contemplation And Action. This Is Called Becoming A Man.
Men
Becoming
Action
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
History Has Shown That The Less People Read, The More Books They Buy.
Book
People
In Holland, Everyone Is An Expert In Painting And In Tulips.
Art
Experts
Painting
Truth, Like Light, Blinds. Falsehood, On The Contrary, Is A Beautiful Twilight That Enhances Every Object.
Beautiful
Truth
Honesty
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
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
Note, Besides, That It Is No More Immoral To Directly Rob Citizens Than To Slip Indirect Taxes Into The Price Of Goods That They Cannot Do Without.
Taxation
Citizens
Indirect
More And More, Revolution Has Found Itself Delivered Into The Hands Of Its Bureaucrats And Doctrinaires On The One Hand, And To The Enfeebled And Bewildered Masses On The Other.
Hands
Revolution
Rebellious
In Short, They Were Gambling On Their Luck, And Luck Is Not To Be Coerced.
Gambling
Luck
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
My Profession Lent Itself Nicely To My Vocation For Heights. It Freed Me Of Any Bitterness Towards My Fellow Men, Who Were Alwaysin My Debt, Without My Owing Them Anything. It Placed Me Above The Judge Whom, I In Turn Judged, Above The Defendant Whom I Forced Into Gratitude.
Gratitude
Men
Law
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
By Giving Too Much Importance To Fine Actions One May End By Paying An Indirect But Powerful Tribute To Evil, Because In So Doing One Implies That Such Fine Actions Are Only Valuable Because They Are Rare, And That Malice Or Indifference Are Far More Common Motives In The Actions Of Men.
Powerful
Men
Evil
To Stay Or To Go, It Amounted To The Same Thing.
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
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
Man Is An Idea, And A Precious Small Idea Once He Turns His Back On Love.
Love
Men
Precious Stones
If Nietzsche Is Correct, That To Shame A Man Is To Kill Him, Then Any Honest Attempt At Autobiography Will Be An Act Of Self-destruction.
Men
Self
Honest
I Rebel; Therefore I Exist.
Life
Rebel
Existentialism
What, In Fact, Is A Novel But A Universe In Which Action Is Endowed With Form, Where Final Words Are Pronounced, Where People Possess One Another Completely, And Where Life Assumes The Aspect Of Destiny?
Destiny
People
Finals
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
We Used To Wonder Where War Lived, What It Was That Made It So Vile. And Now We Realize That We Know Where It Lives... Inside Ourselves.
Peace
War
Realizing
When The Soul Suffers Too Much, It Develops A Taste For Misfortune.
Soul
Suffering
Too Much
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
There Are Crimes Of Passion And Crimes Of Logic. The Boundary Between Them Is Not Clearly Defined.
Life
Passion
Logic
For The First Time, The First, I Laid My Heart Open To The Benign Indifference Of The Universe. To Feel It So Like Myself, Indeed So Brotherly, Made Me Realize That I'd Been Happy, And That I Was Happy Still.
Happiness
Heart
Firsts
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
Sacrifice
Thinking
We Have Art In Order Not To Die Of Life.
Art
Order
Dies
The World Is Unimportant And Whoever Recognizes This Conquers His Liberty.
Liberty
World
Conquer
By Definition, A Government Has No Conscience. Sometimes It Has A Policy, But Nothing More.
Government
Definitions
Politics
Old Married People Look So Much Alike That They Have The Same Number Of Hairs In Their Ears.
Marriage
Hair
Numbers
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.
Mean
Creating
Order
Too Many Have Dispensed With Generosity In Order To Practice Charity.
Order
Practice
Generosity
If, After All, Men Cannot Always Make History Have A Meaning, They Can Always Act So That Their Own Lives Have One.
Life
Time
Men
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
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
This World, Such As It Is, Is Not Tolerable. Therefore I Need The Moon, Or Happiness, Or Immortality, I Need Something Which Is Perhaps Demented, But Which Is Not Of This World.
Moon
World
Needs
Madness Such As This, Its Like Trying To Stop A Fire With The Moisture From A Kiss
Kissing
Fire
Trying
Truth, Like Light Is Dazzling. By Contrast, Untruth Is A Beautiful Sunset That Enhances Everything.
Beautiful
Sunset
Light
Only He Who Is Uncompromising As To His Rights Maintains The Sense Of Duty.
Rights
Duty
Uncompromising
The Truth Is That Every Intelligent Man, As You Know, Dreams Of Being A Gangster And Of Ruling Over Society By Force Alone. As It Is Not So Easy As The Detective Novels Might Lead One To Believe, One Generally Relies On Politics And Joins The Cruelest Party.what Does It Matter, After All, If By Humiliating One's Mind One Succeeds In Dominating Every One? I Discovered In Myself Sweet Dreams Of Oppression.
Dream
Sweet
Party
... Man Has An Idea Of A Better World Than This. But Better Does Not Mean Different, It Means Unified... Religion Or Crime, Every Human Endeavor In Fact, Finally Obeys This Unreasonabledesire And Claims To Give Life A Form It Does Not Have.
Mean
Men
Ideas
A Man Is More A Man Through The Things He Keeps To Himself Than Through Those He Says.
Men
I Shall Not, As Far As I Am Concerned, Try To Pass Myself Off As A Christian In Your Presence. I Share With You The Same Revulsion From Evil. But I Do Not Share Your Hope, And I Continue To Struggle Against This Universe In Which Children Suffer And Die.
Christian
Children
Struggle
The Struggle To The Top Alone Will Make A Human Heart Swell.
Struggle
Heart
Humans
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
Liberty Is Dangerous.
Liberty
Dangerous
... 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
None Of The Evils Which Totalitarianism ... Claims To Remedy Is Worse Than Totalitarianism Itself.
Evil
Claims
Remedy
But Sometimes It Takes More Courage To Live Than To Shoot Yourself.
Sometimes
The Absurd Is Essentially A Divorce. It Lies In Neither Of The Elements Compared; It Is Born Of Their Confrontation.
Lying
Divorce
Elements
Whoever Today Speaks Of Human Existence In Terms Of Power, Efficiency, And Historical Tasks Is An Actual Or Potential Assassin.
Power
Historical
Tasks
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
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
Freedom Is Not A Gift Received From The State Or Leader, But A Possession To Be Won Every Day By The Effort Of Each And The Union Of All.
Government
Effort
Leader
He Was Conscious Of The Disastrous Fact That Love And Desire Must Be Expressed In The Same Way.
Desire
Way
Facts
[love] Is The Type Of Disease That Spares Neither The Intelligent Nor The Idiotic.
Love
Intelligent
Stupidity
There Is The Good And The Bad, The Great And The Low, The Just And The Unjust. I Swear To You That All That Will Never Change.
Unjust
Never Change
Lows
Those Who Weep For The Happy Periods Which They Encounter In History Acknowledge What They Want; Not The Alleviation But The Silencing Of Misery.
History
Encounters
Want
Judging Whether Life Is Or Is Not Worth Living Amounts To Answering The Fundamental Question Of Philosophy.
Suicide
Philosophy
Suicidal
It Is Better To Burn Than To Disappear.
Disappear
Of Course, True Love Is Exceptional - Two Or Three Times A Century, More Or Less. The Rest Of The Time There Is Vanity Or Boredom.
Love Is
Vanity
Two
Men Must Live And Create. Live To The Point Of Tears.
Inspirational
Life
Men
It Is Natural To Give A Clear View Of The World After Accepting The Idea That It Must Be Clear.
Views
Ideas
Giving
There Is Not A Single True Work Of Art That Has Not In The End Added To The Inner Freedom Insight And Life Of Each Person Who Has Known And Loved It.
Art
Ends
Insight
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
Absurd- That Is The Light Mind That Establishes Its Own Borders.
Light
Mind
Borders
Absolute Freedom Mocks At Justice. Absolute Justice Denies Freedom.
Inspirational
Freedom
Justice
In Order To Exist, Man Must Rebel, But Rebellion Must Respect The Limits That It Discovers In Itself - Limits Where Minds Meet, And In Meeting, Begin To Exist.
Men
Order
Mind
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 More I Accuse Myself, The More Right I Have To Judge You. Even Better, I Make You Judge Yourself, Which Comforts Me The More.
Judging
Guilt
Comfort
Sometimes, Carrying On, Just Carrying On, Is The Superhuman Achievement.
Inspirational
Moving On
Encouraging
A Fate Is Not A Punishment.
Fate
Punishment
Thinking Is Learning All Over Again How To See, Directing One's Consciousness, Making Of Every Image A Privileged Place.
Thinking
Consciousness
Sisyphus
Without Freedom There Is No Art.
Art
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
Nature Is A Burning And Frigid, Transparent And Limited Universe In Which Nothing Is Possible But Everything Is Given.
Nature
Burning
Frigid
If Absolute Truth Belongs To Anyone In This World, It Certainly Does Not Belong To The Man Or Party That Claims To Possess It.
Life
Truth
Party
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
There Was The Same Dazzling Red Glare. The Sea Gasped For Air With Each Shallow, Stifled Wave That Broke On The Sand. ...with Every Blade Of Light That Flashed Off The Sand, From A Bleached Shell Or A Peice Of Broken Glass, My Jaws Tightened. I Walked For A Long Time.
Sea
Glasses
Light
Have Pity, Lord, On Those Who Love And Are Separated.
Love
Separation
Pity
Life Is Meaningless, But Worth Living, Provided You Recognize It's Meaningless.
Life Is
Worth Living
Meaningless
Revolution, In Order To Be Creative, Cannot Do Without Either A Moral Or Metaphysical Rule To Balance The Insanity Of History.
Order
History
Creative
One Must Place One's Principles In Big Things. For The Small, Graciousness Will Suffice.
Principles
Graciousness
Bigs
In Our Society, Any Man Who Doesn't Cry At His Mother's Funeral Is Liable To Be Condemned To Death.
Mother
Men
Funeral
There Are People Who Vindicate The World, Who Help Others Live Just By Their Presence.
Helping Others
People
World
We Spend Our Days In Deliberating, And We End Them Without Coming To Any Resolve.
Thinking
Ends
Resolve
Have You No Hope At All? And Do You Really Live With The Thought That When You Die, You Die, And Nothing Remains?" "yes," I Said.
Stranger
Said
No Hope
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
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.
Attitude
Character
Passion
There Is No More Futile Punishment Than Futile And Hopeless Labor.
Success
Work
Punishment
An Intellectual Is Someone Whose Mind Watches Itself.
Knowledge
Responsibility
Intelligent
It Is The Job Of Thinking People Not To Be On The Side Of The Executioners.
Wisdom
Peace
Jobs
I Have The Loftiest Idea, And The Most Passionate One, Of Art. Much Too Lofty To Agree To Subject It To Anything. Much Too Passionate To Want To Divorce It From Anything.
Art
Divorce
Ideas
The Myth Of Unlimited Production Brings War In Its Train As Inevitably As Clouds Announce A Storm.
War
Clouds
Storm
We Have To Live And Let Live In Order To Create What We Are.
Order
Idealism
Live And Let Live
Fancy Language, Like Poplin, Too Often Conceals An Eczema.
Eczema
Fancy
Dishonesty
I Knew A Pure Heart Who Refused Tot Be Mistrustful.... He Had Written At His Doorstep: "from Wherever You Are, Enter And Be Welcome". Who Do You Think Responded To This Lovely Invitation? The Militia, Who Made Themselves At Home And Gutted Him.
Trust
Home
Heart
Generally, I Like All Islands. There, It Is Easier To Rule.
Islands
Isolation
Easier
Capital Punishment Is The Most Premeditated Of Murders, To Which No Criminal's Deed, However Calculated Can Be Compared. For There To Be An Equivalency, The Death Penalty Would Have To Punish A Criminal Who Had Warned His Victim Of The Date At Which He Would Inflict A Horrible Death On Him And Who, From That Moment Onward, Had Confined Him At His Mercy For Months. Such A Monster Is Not Encountered In Private Life.
Death
Punishment
Dying
When A War Breaks Out, People Say: "it's Too Stupid; It Can't Last Long." But Though A War May Well Be "too Stupid," That Doesn't Prevent Its Lasting. Stupidity Has A Knack Of Getting Its Way; As We Should See If We Were Not Always So Much Wrapped Up In Ourselves.
War
Stupid
Long
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 Real 19th Century Prophet Was Dostoevsky, Not Karl Marx.
Real
Prophet
Century
The Absurd Depends As Much On Man As On The World. For The Moment, It Is All That Links Them Together.
Men
Together
World
Love Is The Kind Of Illness That Does Not Spare The Intelligent Or The Dull.
Love
Intelligent
Doe
Freedom Is Not Constituted Primarily Of Privileges But Of Responsibilities.
Responsibility
Privilege
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
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
In Oran, As Elsewhere, For Want Of Time And Thought, People Have To Love One Another Without Knowing It.
Time
Knowing
People
To Grow Old Is To Pass From Passion To Compassion.
Passion
Age
Aging
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
Have You Noticed That Only Death Arouses Our Emotions? How We Love Thee Friends Who Have Just Passed Away, Right? How We Admire Those Master Who No Longer Speak, Their Mouths Full Of Dirt. We Them We Are Not Obligated.
Death
Mouths
Dirt
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?
Stupid
Men
Doe
If We Understood The Enigmas Of Life There Would Be No Need For Art.
Art
Would Be
Needs
Each Generation Doubtless Feels Called Upon To Reform The World. Mine Knows That It Will Not Reform It, But Its Task Is Perhaps Even Greater. It Consists In Preventing The World From Destroying Itself.
World
Reform
Tasks
There May Be Responsible Persons, But There Are No Guilty Ones.
Guilt
May
Shame
All Systems Of Morality Are Based On The Idea That An Action Has Consequences That Legitimize Or Cancel It. A Mind Imbued With The Absurd Merely Judges That Those Consequences Must Be Considered Calmly.
Actions Have Consequences
Ideas
Judging
Poverty, First Of All Was Never A Misfortune For Me; It Was Radiant With Sunlight.. I Owe It To My Family, First Of All, Who Lacked Everything And Who Envied Practically Nothing.
Family First
Poverty
Firsts
But What Is Happiness Except The Simple Harmony Between A Man And The Life He Leads?
Inspirational
Happiness
Happy
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
The Main Thing Is That Everything Become Simple, Easy Enough For A Child To Understand.
Children
Simple
Easy
But Who Would Dare Condemn Me In This World With No Judges, Where No One Is Innocent!
Judging
Guilt
World
Because There Is Nothing Here Than Invites Us To Cherish Unhappy Lovers. Nothing Is More Vain Than To Die For Love. What We Ought To Do Is Live.
Unhappy
Lovers
Cherish
On The Whole, Men Are More Good Than Bad; That, However, Isn't The Real Point. But They Are More Or Less Ignorant, And It Is This That We Call Vice Or Virtue; The Most Incorrigible Vice Being That Of An Ignorance That Fancies It Knows Everything And Therefore Claims For Itself The Right To Kill. The Soul Of The Murderer Is Blind; And There Can Be No True Goodness Nor True Love Without The Utmost Clear-sightedness.
Real
Ignorance
Men
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
With Rebellion, Awareness Is Born
Awareness
Rebellion
Born
The Realization That Life Is Absurd And Cannot Be An End, But Only A Beginning. This Is A Truth Nearly All Great Minds Have Taken As Their Starting Point. It Is Not This Discovery That Is Interesting, But Theconsequences And Rules Of Action Drawn From It.
Life
Taken
Discovery
No Human Being, Even The Most Passionately Loved And Passionately Loving, Is Ever In Our Possession.
Possession
Humans
Human Beings
The Absurd Is Lucid Reason Noting Its Limits.
Limits
Reason
Absurd
Don't Let Them Tell Us Stories.
Stories
We Don't Have The Time To Completely Be Ourselves. We Only Have The Room To Be Happy.
Rooms
I Do Not Want To Believe That Death Is The Gateway To Another Life. For Me, It Is A Closed Door. I Do Not Say It Is A Step We Must All Take, But That It Is A Horrible And Dirty Adventure.
Life
Death
Believe
I Am Not Made For Politics Because I Am Incapable Of Wanting Or Accepting The Death Of The Adversary.
Accepting
Made
Incapable
To Create Is Likewise To Give A Shape To One's Fate
Fate
Giving
Shapes
Forever I Shall Be A Stranger To Myself. In Psychology As In Logic, There Are Truths But No Truth.
Forever
Psychology
Logic
Believe Me, The Hardest Thing For A Man To Give Up Is That Which He Really Doesn't Want, After All.
Giving Up
Believe
Men
The Greatness Of Man Lies In His Decision To Be Stronger Than His Condition.
Lying
Greatness
Men
When Silence Or Tricks Of Language Contribute To Maintaining An Abuse That Must Be Reformed Or A Suffering That Can Be Relieved, Then There Is No Other Solution But To Speak Out And Show The Obscenity Hidden Under The Verbal Cloak.
Speaks Out
Silence
Abuse
My Life Was Lucky So That I Met, I Loved (and Disappointed) Only Outstanding People.
People
Lucky
Mets
You Always Get Exaggerated Notions Of Things You Don't Know Anything About.
Notion
Knows
Exaggerated
To Be Famous, In Fact, One Has Only To Kill One's Landlady.
Facts
Fame
Parallelogram
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
Myths Are Made For The Imagination To Breath Life Into Them.
Imagination
Made
Myth
In Our Wildest Aberrations We Dream Of An Equilibrium We Have Left Behind And Which We Naively Expect To Find At The End Of Our Errors. Childish Presumption Which Justifies The Fact That Child-nations, Inheriting Our Follies, Are Now Directing Our History.
Dream
Children
Errors
There Are More Things To Admire In Men Than To Despise.
Men
Despise
Admire
A Man Without Ethics Is A Wild Beast Loosed Upon This World.
Life
Honesty
Integrity
Absolute Virtue Is Impossible And The Republic Of Forgiveness Leads, With Implacable Logic, To The Republic Of The Guillotine.
Forgiveness
Republic
Impossible
Seeking What Is True Is Not Seeking What Is Desirable.
Life
Truth
Atheism
I See Many People Die Because They Judge That Life Is Not Worth Living. I See Others Paradoxically Getting Killed For The Ideas Or Illusions That Give Them A Reason For Living (what Is Called A Reason For Living Is Also An Excellent Reason For Dying). I Therefore Conclude That The Meaning Of Life Is The Most Urgent Of Questions.
Ideas
People
Giving
The Soul Of A Murderer Is Blind
Soul
Blind
Murderer
We Are Not Certain, We Are Never Certain.
Certain
What Is A Rebel? A Man Who Says No: But Whose Refusal Does Not Imply A Renunciation.
Men
Rebel
Doe
The Act Of Love . . . Is A Confession. Selfishness Screams Aloud, Vanity Shows Off, Or Else True Generosity Reveals Itself.
Love
Selfish
Vanity
I Had Only A Little Time Left And I Didn't Want To Waste It On God.
Time
Want
Littles
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
In This Vast Country That He Had So Loved, He Was Alone.
Country
Happiness And The Absurd Are Two Sons Of The Same Earth. They Are Inseparable. It Would Be A Mistake To Say That Happiness Necessarily Springs From The Absurd Discovery. It Happens As Well That The Felling Of The Absurd Springs From Happiness. "i Conclude That All Is Well," Says Oedipus, And That Remark Is Sacred. It Echoes In The Wild And Limited Universe Of Man. It Teaches That All Is Not, Has Not Been, Exhausted. It Drives Out Of This World A God Who Had Come Into It With Dissatisfaction And A Preference For Futile Suffering. It Makes Of Fate A Human Matter, Which Must Be Settled Among Men.
Happiness
Mistake
Spring
It Is Not Your Paintings I Like, It Is Your Painting.
Painting
Every Man, And For Stronger Reasons, Every Artist, Wants To Be Recognized. So Do I.
Artist
Men
Stronger
What Is A Rebel? A Man Who Says No.
Men
Rebel
Conformity
A True Masterpiece Does Not Tell Everything.
Doe
Masterpiece
There Is Always A Philosophy For Lack Of Courage.
Philosophy
Cowardice
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
The Role Of The Intellectual Cannot Be To Excuse The Violence Of One Side And Condemn That Of The Other.
Intellectual
Roles
Violence
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
Real Generosity Toward The Future Lies In Giving All To The Present.
Life
Gratitude
Lying
I May Not Have Been Sure About What Really Did Interest Me, But I Was Absolutely Sure About What Didn't.
Life
May
Interest
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.
Men
Judging Yourself
Mind
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