Albert Camus

"O light! This is the cry of all the characters of ancient drama brought face to face with their fate. This last resort was ours, too, and I knew it now. In the middle of winter I at last discovered that there was in me an invincible summer."

"Hungary conquered and in chains has done more for freedom and justice than any people for twenty years. But for this lesson to get through and convince those in the West who shut their eyes and ears, it was necessary, and it can be no comfort to us, for the people of Hungary to shed so much blood which is already drying in our memories. In Europe's isolation today, we have only one way of being true to Hungary, and that is never to betray, among ourselves and everywhere, what the Hungarian heroes died for, never to condone, among ourselves and everywhere, even indirectly, those who killed them. It would indeed be difficult for us to be worthy of such sacrifices."

"With rebellion, awareness is born."

"A living man can be enslaved and reduced to the historic condition of an object. But if he dies in refusing to be enslaved, he reaffirms the existence of another kind of human nature which refuses to be classified as an object."

"There is not love of life without despair about life."

"Accepting the absurdity of everything around us is one step, a necessary experience: it should not become a dead end. It arouses a revolt that can become fruitful."

"Knowing that certain nights whose sweetness lingers will keep returning to the earth and sea after we are gone, yes, this helps us to die."

"Life continues, and some mornings, weary of the noise, discouraged by the prospect of the interminable work to keep after, sickened also by the madness of the world that leaps at you from the newspaper, finally convinced that I will not be equal to it and that I will disappoint everyone—all I want to do is sit down and wait for evening. This is what I feel like, and sometimes I yield to it."

"Autumn is a second Spring when every leaf is a flower."

"Ce que, finalement, je sais de plus sûr sur la morale et les obligations des hommes, c'est au football que je le dois."

"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."

"The direction of the world overwhelms me at this time. In the long run, all the continents (yellow, black and brown) will spill over onto Old Europe. They are hundreds and hundreds of millions. They are hungry and they are not afraid to die. We no longer know how to die or how to kill. We could preach, but Europe believes in nothing. So, we must wait for the year 1000 or a miracle. For my part, I find it harder and harder to live before a wall."

"Einen Menschen lieben, heißt einwilligen, mit ihm alt zu werden."

"Von einem bestimmten Alter an ist jeder Mensch für sein Gesicht verantwortlich."

"Sie wissen ja, was Charme ist: eine Art, ein Ja zur Antwort zu erhalten, ohne eine klare Frage gestellt zu haben."

"Es gibt kein Schicksal, welches nicht durch Verachtung überwunden werden kann."

"Ein Mensch ist immer das Opfer seiner Wahrheiten."

"Der Kampf gegen Gipfel vermag ein Menschenherz auszufüllen. Wir müssen uns Sisyphos als einen glücklichen Menschen vorstellen."

"Das Absurde hat nur insofern einen Sinn, als man sich nicht mit ihm abfindet."

"[...] die Freiheit besteht in erster Linie nicht aus Privilegien, sondern aus Pflichten."

"Die wahre Großzügigkeit gegenüber der Zukunft besteht darin, alles der Gegenwart zu geben."