Camus Quotations

The first thing is not to despair.  Let us not listen too much to those who proclaim that the world is at an end.  Civilizations do not die so easily, and even if our world were to collapse, it would not have been the first.  It is indeed true that we live in tragic times.  But too many people confuse tragedy with despair.

Nostalgia for the life of others. This is because, seen from the outside, another's life forms a unit. Whereas ours, seen from the inside, seems broken up. We are still chasing after an illusion of unity.

At war. People who argue about the amount of danger at each front. 'Mine was the most dangerous.' When everything has been made vile and sordid, they still try to establish an order of merit. That is how they survive.

The woman who looked as if she had been constipated for three years: 'Oh these Arabs, they still make their girls cover their faces. Oh, they're not civilised yet,' Little by little, she lets us see what her idea of civilisation is: a husband earning 1200 francs a month, a two room apartment, kitchen and bath, the movies every Sunday, and furniture from the Galeries Barbès for weekdays.

There is always a philosophy for lack of courage.

Understand this: we can despair of the meaning of life in general, but not of the particular forms that it takes; we can despair of existence, for we have no power over it, but not of history, where the individual can do everything. It is individuals who are killing us today. Why should not individuals manage to give the world peace?

if there is a sin against life, it consists perhaps not so much in despairing of life, as in hoping for another life and in eluding the implacable grandeur of this life.

When I was young, I expected people to give me more than they could - continuous friendship, permanent emotion. Now I have learned to expect less of them than they can give - a silent companionship. And their emotions, their friendship, and noble gestures keep their full miraculous value in my eyes; wholly the fruit of grace.