He who despairs of the human condition is a coward, but he who has hope for it is a fool. – Albert Camus
The desire for possession is insatiable, to such a point that it can survive even love itself. To love, therefore, is to sterilize the person one loves. – Albert Camus
A free press can, of course, be good or bad, but, most certainly without freedom, the press will never be anything but bad. – Albert Camus
Every act of rebellion expresses a nostalgia for innocence and an appeal to the essence of being. – Albert Camus
The gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of its own weight. They had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor. – Albert Camus
I grew up with the sea, and poverty for me was sumptuous; then I lost the sea and found all luxuries gray and poverty unbearable. – Albert Camus
There will be no lasting peace either in the heart of individuals or in social customs until death is outlawed. – Albert Camus
Martyrs, my friend, have to choose between being forgotten, mocked or used. As for being understood – never. – Albert Camus
Don’t believe your friends when they ask you to be honest with them. All they really want is to be maintained in the good opinion they have of themselves. – Albert Camus
We continue to shape our personality all our life. If we knew ourselves perfectly, we should die. – Albert Camus
To abandon oneself to principles is really to die – and to die for an impossible love which is the contrary of love. – Albert Camus
By definition, a government has no conscience. Sometimes it has a policy, but nothing more. – Albert Camus
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. – Albert Camus
Without culture, and the relative freedom it implies, society, even when perfect, is but a jungle. This is why any authentic creation is a gift to the future. – Albert Camus
At 30 a man should know himself like the palm of his hand, know the exact number of his defects and qualities, know how far he can go, foretell his failures – be what he is. And, above all, accept these things. – Albert Camus
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. – Albert Camus
The absurd depends as much on man as on the world. For the moment, it is all that links them together. – Albert Camus