The one way of making people hang together is to give 'em
a spell of the plague.
The Plague
Part 4. |
Though they have an instinctive craving for human contacts,
[they] can't bring themselves to yield to it, because of the
mistrust that keeps them apart.
The Plague
Part 4. |
Until now I always felt a stranger in this town, and that
I'd no concern with you people. But now that I've seen what
I have seen, I know that I belong here whether I want it or
not. This business is everybody's business.
The Plague
Part 4. |
No, Father. I've a very different idea of love. And until
my dying day I shall refuse to love a scheme of things in which
children are put to torture.
The Plague
Part 4. |
No, we should go forward, groping our way through the darkness,
stumbling perhaps at times, and try to do what good lay in our
power. As for the rest, we must hold fast, trusting in the divine
goodness, even as to the deaths of little children, and not
seeking personal respite.
The Plague
Part 4. |
Nobody is capable of really thinking about anyone, even in
the worst calamity.
The Plague
Part 4. |
We can't stir a finger in this world without the risk of bringing
death to somebody. Yes, I've been ashamed ever since; I have
realized that we all have plague, and I have lost my peace.
The Plague
Tarrou, Part 4. |
What's natural is the microbe. All the rest - heath, integrity,
purity (if you like) - is a product of the human will, of a
vigilance that must never falter. The good man, the man who
infects hardly anyone, is the man who has the fewest lapses
of attention.
The Plague
Part 4. |
Can one be a saint without God? That's the problem, in fact
the only problem, I'm up against today.
The Plague
Tarrou to Rieux. |
Its energy was flagging, out of exhaustion and exasperation,
and it was losing, with its self-command, the ruthless, almost
mathematical efficiency that had been its trump-card hitherto.
The Plague
Part 5. |
Once the faintest stirring of hope became possible, the dominion
of the plague was ended.
The Plague
Part 5. |
Our strategy had not changed, but whereas yesterday it had
obviously failed, today it seemed triumphant. Indeed, one's
chief impression was that the epidemic had called a retreat
after reaching all its objectives; it had, so to speak, achieved
its purpose.
The Plague
Part 5. |
Yes, he'd make a fresh start, once the period of "abstractions"
was over.
The Plague
Part 5. |
It was as if the pestilence, hounded away by cold, the street-lamps
and the crowd, had fled from the depths of the town.
The Plague
Part 5. |
So all a man could win in the conflict between plague and
life was knowledge and memories.
The Plague
Part 5. |
Once plague had shut the gates of the town, they had settled
down to a life of separation, debarred from the living warmth
that gives forgetfulness of all.
The Plague
Part 5. |
If there is one thing one can always yearn for and sometimes
attain, it is human love.
The Plague
Part 5. |
What we learn in time of pestilence: that there are more things
to admire in men than to despise.
The Plague
Part 5. |
He knew that the tale he had to tell could not be one of final
victory. It could be only the record of what had to be done,
and what assuredly would have to be done again in the never-ending
fight against terror and its relentless onslaughts.
The Plague
Part 5. |
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The Plague Parts 1-3 
