Background Image
...
The Great Courage Is To Stare As Squarely At The Light As At Death.
-Albert Camus
...
Please Wait....
Translating....

The Great Courage Is

Albert Camus
...
The Great Courage Is To Stare As Squarely At The Light As At Death.

Understanding the Quote: "the great courage is to stare as squarely at the light as..."

This quote by Albert Camus reflects deeply on the theme of light. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Light, Staring, 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 light and staring. 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.

Views: 5
Topic
Light
Staring
More From Albert Camus
Where Would His Torture Be, Indeed, If At Every Step The Hope Of Succeeding Upheld Him?
Succeed
Steps
Torture
Thinking Is Learning All Over Again How To See, Directing One's Consciousness, Making Of Every Image A Privileged Place.
Thinking
Consciousness
Sisyphus
Do Not Wait For The Last Judgment. It Takes Place Every Day.
Waiting
Lasts
Judgment
He Knew Now That It Was His Own Will To Happiness Which Must Make The Next Move. But If He Was To Do So, He Realized That He Must Come To Terms With Time, That To Have Time Was At Once The Most Magnificent And The Most Dangerous Of Experiments. Idleness Is Fatal Only To The Mediocre.
Retirement
Moving
Next Move
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
Does The End Justify The Means? That Is Possible. But What Will Justify The End? To That Question, Which Historical Thought Leaves Pending, Rebellion Replies: The Means.
Mean
Historical
Doe
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
Death Means Nothing To Men Like Me. It's The Event That Proves Them Right.
Mean
Men
Events
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
When One Has Extensively Pondered About Men, As A Career Or As A Vocation, One Sometimes Feels Nostalgic For Primates. At Least They Do Not Have Ulterior Motives.
Men
Careers
Sometimes
For If I Try To Seize This Self Of Which I Feel Sure, If I Try To Define And To Summarize It, It Is Nothing But Water Slipping Through My Fingers.
Self
Water
Trying
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
Love Cannot Accept What It Is. Everywhere On Earth It Cries Out Against Kindness, Compassion, Intelligence, Everything That Leads To Compromise. Love Demands The Impossible, The Absolute, The Sky On Fire, Inexhaustible Springtime, Life After Death, And Death Itself Transfigured Into Eternal Life.
Friendship
Kindness
Compassion
How Do You Put Everyone In The Pool, So You Have The Right To Dry Yourself In The Sun?
Dry
Sun
Pool
Germany Collapsed As A Result Of Having Engaged In A Struggle For Empire With The Concepts Of Provincial Politics.
War
Struggle
World
To Govern Means To Pillage, As Everyone Knows.
Mean
Knows
Even When One Sits In The Prisoner's Dock, It Is Interesting To Hear Talk About Oneself.
Interesting
Trials
Docks
He Had Opened His Heart To The Sublime Indifference Of The Universe
Heart
Sublime
Indifference
Once One's Up Against It, The Precise Manner Of One's Death Has Obviously Small Importance.
Death
Importance
Precise
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
The Four Conditions Of Happiness: Life In The Open Air, Love For Another Being,freedom From Ambition,creation
Happiness
Ambition
Air
Truth, Like Light, Blinds. Falsehood, On The Contrary, Is A Beautiful Twilight That Enhances Every Object.
Beautiful
Truth
Honesty
If Pimps And Thieves Everywhere Were Always Punished, Honest People Would All Believe Themselves Always To Be Innocent.
Believe
People
Justice
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
An Achievement Is A Bondage. It Obliges One To A Higher Achievement.
Inspiration
Achievement
Bondage
The First Concern Of Any Dictatorship Is, Consequently, To Subjugate Both Labor And Culture.
Culture
Firsts
Dictatorship
Nihilism Is Not Only Despair And Negation, But Above All The Desire To Despair And To Negate.
Despair
Nihilism
Desire
The Day Of My Arrest I Was First Put In A Room Where There Were Already Several Other Prisoners, Most Of Them Arabs. They Laughed When They Saw Me. Then They Asked What I Was In For. I Said I'd Killed An Arab And They Were All Silent
Rooms
Saws
Firsts
Great Feelings Take With Them Their Own Universe, Splendid Or Abject. They Light Up With Their Passion An Exclusive World In Which They Recognize Their Climate.
Passion
Light
Feelings
I'd Have Given Ten Conversations With Einstein For A First Meeting With A Pretty Chorus Girl.
Girl
Personality
Firsts
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
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
I Am Alive Again, Now That I Can No Longer Stand To Live.
Life
Despair
Alive
For What Gives Value To Travel Is Fear. It Breaks Down A Kind Of Inner Structure We Have. Travel Robs Us Of Such Refuge. Far From Our Own People, Our Own Language, Stripped Of All Our Props, Deprived Of Our Masks (one Doesn't Know The Fare On The Streetcars, Or Anything Else), We Are Completely On The Surface Of Ourselves.
Kind
Breaking Down
Mask
There Is No Frontier Between Being And Appearing.
Frontiers
Appearing
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
We Always Deceive Ourselves Twice About The People We Love - First To Their Advantage, Then To Their Disadvantage.
Love
Life
Deceived Us
Perhaps We Cannot Prevent This World From Being A World In Which Children Are Tortured. But We Can Reduce The Number Of Tortured Children.
Children
Numbers
World
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
Morality, When Formal, Devours.
Perseverance
Morality
Formal
No Matter How The Sun Shone, The Sea Held Forth No More Promises.
Sea
Promise
Matter
But Perhaps We Should Love What We Cannot Understand
Should
A True Masterpiece Does Not Tell Everything.
Doe
Masterpiece
There Is No Sun Without Shadow, And It Is Essential To Know The Night.
Gratitude
Night
Shadow
A Work Of Art Is A Confession.
Art
Confession
Art Is
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
But Sometimes It Takes More Courage To Live Than To Shoot Yourself.
Sometimes
In Order To Understand The World, One Has To Turn Away From It On Occasion.
Order
Solitude
World
An Intense Feeling Carries With It Its Own Universe, Magnificent Or Wretched As The Case May Be.
Feelings
May
Intense
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
The Urge To Revolt Is One Of The Essential Dimensions Of Human Nature.
Essentials
Dimensions
Human Nature
Like Great Works, Deep Feelings Always Mean More Than They Are Conscious Of Saying.
Mean
Feelings
Existential
It Is Not True That The Heart Wears Out - But The Body Creates This Illusion.
Heart
Body
Illusion
The Main Thing Is That Everything Become Simple, Easy Enough For A Child To Understand.
Children
Simple
Easy
We're All Special Cases.
Special
Cases
Whoever Today Speaks Of Human Existence In Terms Of Power, Efficiency, And Historical Tasks Is An Actual Or Potential Assassin.
Power
Historical
Tasks
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
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
Every Rebellion Implies Some Kind Of Unity.
Unity
Kind
Rebellion
The Temptation Shared By All Forms Of Intelligence: Cynicism.
Temptation
Intelligence
Cynicism
Knowing What [christ] Knew , Knowing All About Mankind--ah! Who Would Have Thought That The Crime Is Not So Much To Make Others Die, But To Die Oneself--confronted Day And Night With His Innocent Crime, It Became Too Difficult To Go On. It Was Better To Get It Over With, To Not Defend Himself, To Die, In Order Not To Be The Only One To Have Survived, And To Go Elsewhere, Where, Perhaps, He Would Be Supported.
God
Night
Order
This Divorce Between Man And His Life, The Actor And His Setting, Is Properly The Feeling Of Absurdity.
Divorce
Men
Absurdity Of Life
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
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
The Slave Begins By Demanding Justice And Ends By Wanting To Wear A Crown.
Justice
Crowns
Slave
You Cannot Create Experience. You Must Undergo It.
Understanding
Experience
Minimalist
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
There Are Some Individuals Who Have Too Strong A Craving, A Will, And A Nostalgia For Happiness Ever To Reach It. They Always Retain A Bitter And Passionate Aftertaste, And That's The Best They Can Hope For.
Happiness
Strong
Passionate
Ironic Philosophies Produce Passionate Works.
Philosophy
Ironic
Passionate
We [writers] Must Know That We Can Never Escape The Common Misery And That Our Only Justification, If Indeed There Is A Justification, Is To Speak Up, Insofar As We Can, For Those Who Cannot Do So.
Writing
Common
Misery
Everybody Knows Life Isn't Worth Living.
Knows
Worth Living
Those Who Write Clearly Have Readers.
Writing
Reader
Writers And Writing
Our Reason Has Driven All Away. Alone At Last, We End Up Ruling Over A Desert.
Desert
Lasts
Reason
The Myth Of Unlimited Production Brings War In Its Train As Inevitably As Clouds Announce A Storm.
War
Clouds
Storm
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
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
There Always Comes A Time When One Must Choose Between Contemplation And Action. This Is Called Becoming A Man.
Men
Becoming
Action
In Normal Times All Of Us Know, Whether Consciously Or Not, That There Is No Love Which Can't Be Bettered; Nevertheless, We Reconcile Ourselves More Or Less Easily To The Fact That Ours Has Never Risen Above The Average.
Average
Facts
Normal
Without Work All Life Goes Rotten.
Work
Rotten
Stifling
One Recognizes One's Course By Discovering The Paths That Stray From It.
Path
Discovering
Recognise
The Only Real Progress Lies In Learning To Be Wrong All Alone.
Life
Courage
Lying
Rebellion Cannot Exist Without The Feeling That Somewhere, In Some Way, You Are Justified.
Feelings
Way
Justified
We Have Art In Order Not To Die Of Life.
Art
Order
Dies
But Too Many People Now Climb Onto The Cross Merely To Be Seen From A Greater Distance, Even If They Have To Trample Somewhat On The One Who Has Been There So Long.
Distance
Long
People
The Important Thing Isn't The Soundness Or Otherwise Of The Argument, But For It To Make You Think.
Thinking
Make You Think
Important
At A Certain Level Of Suffering Or Injustice No One Can Do Anything For Anyone. Pain Is Solitary.
Pain
Suffering
Levels
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
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
Happiness Is Generous. It Does Not Subsist On Destruction.
Happiness
Doe
Destruction
Your Success And Happiness Are Forgiven You Only If You Generously Consent To Share Them. But To Be Happy It Is Essential Not To Be Too Concerned With Others. Consequently, There Is No Escape. Happy And Judged, Or Absolved And Wretched.
Judgement
Essentials
Share
The Best Are Led To Make Greater Demands Upon Themselves. As For Those Who Succumb, They Did Not Deserve To Survive.
Demand
Greater
Deserve
Mon Cher Ami, Let's Not Give Them Any Pretext, No Matter How Small, For Judging Us!!! Otherwise, We'll Be Left In Shreds. We Are Forced To Take The Same Precautions As The Animal Trainer. If, Before Going Into The Cage, He Has The Misfortune To Cut Himself While Shaving, What A Feast For The Wild Animals!!
Cutting
Animal
Giving
I Was Assailed By Memories Of A Life That Wasn't Mine Anymore, But One In Which I'd Found The Simplest And Most Lasting Joys.
Memories
Joy
Stranger
Only The Sea, Murmurous Behind The Dingy Checkerboard Of Houses, Told Of The Unrest, The Precariousness, Of All Things In This World.
Sea
House
Unrest
To Be Happy, We Must Not Be Too Concerned With Others.
Happiness
Happy
Laughter
Murder Is Terribly Exhausting.
Murder
Exhausting
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
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
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
But What Is Happiness Except The Simple Harmony Between A Man And The Life He Leads?
Inspirational
Happiness
Happy
Seeking What Is True Is Not Seeking What Is Desirable.
Life
Truth
Atheism
I Am Too Much In Love With My Lies And Hypocrisies Not To Confess Them Fervently.
Lying
Hypocrisy
Too Much
All I Maintain Is That On This Earth There Are Pestilences And There Are Victims, And It's Up To Us, So Far As Possible, Not To Join Forces With The Pestilences. That May Sound Simple To The Point Of Childishness; I Can't Judge If It's Simple, But I Know It's True.
Simple
Judging
Sound
Who Taught You All This, Doctor?" The Reply Came Promptly: "suffering.
Doctors
Suffering
Taught
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
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
To Write Is To Become Disinterested. There Is A Certain Renunciation In Art.
Art
Writing
Disinterest
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
Have Pity, Lord, On Those Who Love And Are Separated.
Love
Separation
Pity
We All Have A Weakness For Beauty.
Weakness
Everything Is True, And Nothing Is True!
Existentialism
Stranger
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
To Feel Absolutely Right Is The Beginning Of The End.
Ends
Feels
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
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
These Are Facts The Heart Can Feel; Yet They Call For Careful Study Before They Become Clear To The Intellect.
Heart
Facts
Study
I Like People Who Dream Or Talk To Themselves Interminably; I Like Them, For They Are Double. They Are Here And Elsewhere.
Dream
People
Elsewhere
Yes, Everything Is Simple. It's People Who Complicate Things.
Simple
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
As A Remedy To Life In Society I Would Suggest The Big City. Nowadays, It Is The Only Desert Within Our Means.
Life
Mean
Cities
Don't Wait For The Last Judgment - It Takes Place Every Day.
Inspirational
Life
Waiting
Violence Is Both Unavoidable And Unjustifiable.
Violence
We Are All Special Cases.
Appreciation
Teacher
Special
For Centuries The Death Penalty, Often Accompanied By Barbarous Refinements, Has Been Trying To Hold Crime In Check; Yet Crime Persists. Why? Because The Instincts That Are Warring In Man Are Not, As The Law Claims, Constant Forces In A State Of Equilibrium.
Men
Law
Trying
Men Are Convinced Of Your Arguments, Your Sincerity, And The Seriousness Of Your Efforts Only By Your Death.
Death
Men
Effort
Culture: The Cry Of Men In Face Of Their Destiny.
Destiny
Men
Faces
You Have So Much Inside You, And The Noblest Happiness Of All. Don’t Just Wait For A Man To Come Along. That’s The Mistake So Many Women Make. Find Your Happiness In Yourself.
Mistake
Men
Waiting
I Cling Like A Miser To The Freedom That Disappears As Soon As There Is An Excess Of Things.
Excess
Disappear
Misers
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
I Felt As Though I Was Partly Unlearning What I Had Never Learned And Yet Knew So Well: I Mean, How To Live.
Mean
Wells
Felt
I Hadn't Understood How Days Could Be Both Long And Short At The Same Time: Long To Live Through, Maybe, But So Drawn Out That They Ended Up Flowing Into One Another. They Lost Their Names. Only 'yesterday' And 'tomorrow' Still Had Any Meaning For Me.
Names
Yesterday
Long
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
I Felt That I Had Been Happy And That I Was Happy Again. For Everything To Be Consummated, For Me To Feel Less Alone, I Had Only To Wish That There Be A Large Crowd Of Spectators The Day Of My Execution And That They Greet Me With Cries Of Hate.
Hate
Wish
Crowds
If We Believe In Nothing, If Nothing Has Any Meaning And If We Can Affirm No Values Whatsoever, Then Everything Is Possible And Nothing Has Any Importance.
Believe
Importance
Ifs
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
I Have A Very Old And Very Faithful Attachment For Dogs. I Like Them Because They Always Forgive.
Dog
Attachment
Owning A Pet
Without Work, All Life Goes Rotten. But When Work Is Soulless, Life Stifles And Dies.
Inspirational
Work
Passion
We Don't Have The Time To Completely Be Ourselves. We Only Have The Room To Be Happy.
Rooms
In Italian Museums Are Sometimes Found Little Painted Screens That The Priest Used To Hold In Front Of The Face Of Condemned Men To Hide The Scaffold From Them.
Men
Italian
Museums
... One Cannot Be Happy In Exile Or In Oblivion. One Cannot Always Be A Stranger. I Want To Return To My Homeland, Make All My Loved Ones Happy. I See No Further Than This.
Want
Return
Stranger
It Is Not Humiliating To Be Unhappy. Physical Suffering Is Sometimes Humiliating, But The Suffering Of Being Cannot Be, It Is Life.
Suffering
Happiness And Love
Unhappy
For Years I've Wanted To Live According To Everyone Else's Morals. I've Forced Myself To Live Like Everyone Else, To Look Like Everyone Else. I Said What Was Necessary To Join Together, Even When I Felt Separate. And After All Of This, Catastrophe Came. Now I Wander Amid The Debris, I Am Lawless, Torn To Pieces, Alone And Accepting To Be So, Resigned To My Singularity And To My Infirmities. And I Must Rebuild A Truth-after Having Lived All My Life In A Sort Of Lie.
Inspirational
Lying
Years
The Purpose Of A Writer Is To Keep Civilization From Destroying Itself.
Writing
Civilization
Purpose
Imagination Offers People Consolation For What They Cannot Be, And Humor For What They Actually Are.
Art
People
Imagination
People Believe A Man Is In Distress Because His Loved One Dies In One Day. But His Real Pain Is Less Futile: It Is That He Finds Out That Sadness Too Does Not Last. Even Pain Has No Meaning.
Pain
Real
Believe
Great Feelings Take With Them Their Own Universe, Splendid Or Abject.
Feelings
Splendid
Sisyphus
Working Conditions For Me Have Always Been Those Of The Monastic Life: Solitude And Frugality. Except For Frugality, They Are Contrary To My Nature, So Much So That Work Is A Violence I Do To Myself.
Solitude
Violence
Working Conditions
In A World That Has Ceased To Believe In Sin, The Artist Is Responsible For The Preaching.
Believe
Artist
World
Your Successes And Happiness Are Forgiven You Only If You Generously Consent To Share Them.
Happiness
Success
Happy
It Is Not Your Paintings I Like, It Is Your Painting.
Painting
Stupidity Has A Knack Of Getting Its Way.
Stupid
Stupidity
Way
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
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
...the Play Of The Toughest And Most Lucid Mind Are At The Same Time Both Lavished Andsquandered.
Play
Mind
Freedom Is Not A Reward Or A Decoration That Is Celebrated With Champagne...oh No! It's A...long Distance Race, Quite Solitary And Very Exhausting.
Distance
Race
Long
A Liking For Truth At Any Cost Is A Passion That Spares Nothing And That Nothing Resists. It's A Vice, At Times A Comfort, Or A Selfishness.
Selfish
Passion
Comfort
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
For Who Would Dare To Assert That Eternal Happiness Can Compensate For A Single Moment's Human Suffering
Suffering
Eternal Happiness
Moments
Mistakes Are Joyful, Truth Infernal.
Mistake
Philosophical
Joyful
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
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
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
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
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
Why Should It Be Essential To Love Rarely In Order To Love Much?
Order
Essentials
Should
The Human Heart Has A Tiresome Tendency To Label As Fate Only What Crushes It. But Happiness Likewise, In Its Way, Is Without Reason, Since It Is Inevitable.
Crush
Heart
Fate
It Is Terrifying To See How Easily, In Certain People, All Dignity Collapses. Yet When You Think About It, This Is Quite Normal Since They Only Maintain This Dignity By Constantly Striving Against Their Own Nature.
Thinking
People
Normal
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
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
Psychology Is Action, Not Thinking About Oneself.
Thinking
Psychology
Action
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
Alas, After A Certain Age Every Man Is Responsible For His Face.
Birthday
Men
Age
There Is But One Freedom, To Put Oneself Right With Death. After That Everything Is Possible.
Death
Oneself
Beware Of Those Who Say: "i Know This Too Well To Be Able To Express It." For If They Cannot Do So, This Is Because They Don't Know It Or Because Out Of Laziness They Stopped At The Outer Crust.
Atheism
Laziness
Able
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
I Sometimes Need To Write Things Which I Cannot Completely Control But Which Therefore Prove That What Is In Me Is Stronger Than I Am.
Writing
Stronger
Needs
And Never Have I Felt So Deeply At One And The Same Time So Detached From Myself And So Present In The World.
World
Felt
Detached
Mother Died Today. Or Maybe Yesterday; I Can't Be Sure.
Life
Mother
Yesterday
I Feel More Fellowship With The Defeated Than With Saints.
Saint
Fellowship
Defeated
The Best Revenge You Can Have On Intellectuals Is To Be Madly Happy.
Revenge
Best Revenge
The Future Is The Only Kind Of Property That The Masters Willingly Concede To The Slaves.
Kind
Slave
Masters
The Absurd Has Meaning Only In So Far As It Is Not Agreed To.
Absurd
In The Midst Of Winter, I Found There Was, Within Me, An Invincible Summer. And That Makes Me Happy. For It Says That No Matter How Hard The World Pushes Against Me, Within Me, There’s Something Stronger – Something Better, Pushing Right Back.
Life
Summer
Recovery
If One Could Only Say Just Once: 'this Is Clear', All Would Be Saved
Would Be
Clear
Saved
He Was Expressing His Certainty That My Appeal Would Be Granted, But I Was Carrying The Burden Of A Sin From Which I Had To Free Myself. According To Him, Human Justice Was Nothing And Divine Justice Was Everything. I Pointed Out It Was The Former That Had Condemned Me.
Divine Justice
Would Be
Sin
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
One Dies If Necessary, One Breaks Rather Than Bending. But I Bend, Because I Continue To Love Myself.
Bending
Love Myself
Break
…. 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
Office
At The Age Of 40, Having Ordered Meat Very Rare In Restaurants All His Life, He Realized He Actually Liked It Medium And Not At All Rare.
Age
Meat
Restaurants
You Know Very Well That I No Longer Think. I Am Far Too Intelligent For That.
Intelligent
Thinking
Wells
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
Believe
Men
Some Are Created To Love, While The Others - To Live.
A Man Without Ethics Is A Wild Beast Loosed Upon This World.
Life
Honesty
Integrity
Greatness Consists In Trying To Be Great. There Is No Other Way.
Greatness
Trying
Way
I Understood, By Dint Of Digging Into My Memories, That Modesty Helped Me To Shine, Humility Helped Me To Triumph And Virtue To Oppress.
Memories
Humility
Shining
There Is No Fate That Cannot Be Surmounted By Scorn.
Change
Fate
Destiny
Beginning To Think Is Beginning To Be Undermined. Society Has But Little Connection With Such Beginnings. The Worm Is In Man's Heart. That Is Where It Must Be Sought. One Must Follow And Understand This Fatal Game That Leads From Lucidity In The Face Of Existence To Flight From Light.
Heart
Men
Thinking
There Is No More Futile Punishment Than Futile And Hopeless Labor.
Success
Work
Punishment
In The End, We Would Like Not To Be Guilty While At The Same Time Being Dispensed Of The Effort Of Purifying Ourselves. Not Enough Cynicism And Not Enough Virtue.
Effort
Guilty
Virtue
Man Is Always Prey To His Truths. Once He Has Admitted Them, He Cannot Free Himself From Them.
Philosophy
Men
Prey
Trending Author
Graham Chapman
Margaret Haddix
Chaz Bono
Francis Maude
Mark Millar
Burt Reynolds
Category
Information