Don't miss a great opportunity to remain silent about Albert Camus. The conscience of the West: quotes and sayings by Albert Camus

31.07.2019

Albert Camus, 1913-1960, writer and philosopher.

Every revolutionary ends up as an executioner or as a heretic.

Only one thing is inevitable: death, everything else can be avoided.

Human - the only creature who doesn't want to be himself.

Beauty is eternity, lasting a moment.

We turn to God only to get the impossible.

Not being loved is just failure. Not to love is misfortune.

I'll tell you great secret. Do not wait Last Judgment: It is already happening and is happening every day.

Cowardice will always find a philosophical justification within itself.

School prepares us to live in a world that does not exist.

Any life devoted to the pursuit of money is death.

Humanism has not yet bored me: I even like it. But it's too small for me.

To live means to test.

In order for a thought to transform the world, it must first transform the life of its creator.

Truth shines like light.

Without imperfection, happiness is imperceptible.

True generosity for the future is to give everything to the present.

Hell - special favor, which is awarded to those who persistently sought it.

Hell is life with this body, which is still better than non-existence.

Without the sinful principle, man would not be able to live, but without the saint he would live happily.

The folly of love is that the lover strives for the days of waiting to quickly pass and disappear. This is how he strives to bring the end closer. Thus, one of the facets of love comes into contact with death.

Without despair for life there is no love for life. .

Thanks to Sade, eroticism became one of the areas of the philosophy of the absurd.

God was jealous of our pain - that's why he came down to earth to die on the cross.

To be a pagan for oneself, a Christian for others - everyone instinctively inclines towards this
Human.

The great question of life is how to live among people.

…It’s not me who renounces people and things (I couldn’t), it’s people and things who renounce me. My youth is running away from me: this is the disease.

No work of genius has ever been based on hatred or contempt.

Nietzsche, outer side whose life was more than monotonous, proves that thought, working alone, is in itself a terrible adventure.

Nothing inspires more than the awareness of your hopeless situation.

Some are created in order to love, others - in order to live.

We think one thing about the same thing in the morning and another in the evening. But where is the truth - in night thoughts or in daytime reflections?

Sex brings victory if a person frees him from moral imperatives. But very soon victory turns into defeat, and the true victory is the victory over sex - chastity.

Sexual life was given to man in order to lead him astray. This is his opium. She puts everything to sleep. Without her, things come to life again. On the other hand, abstinence prevents procreation - this, perhaps, is the truth.

How many artists arrogantly refuse to recognize themselves as small people! But this awareness of their “smallness” would be enough to acquire true talent, otherwise inaccessible to them.

Fame is the right to love immensely.

The death penalty. A criminal is killed because crime depletes a person's ability to live. He lived through everything, since he killed. He might die. Murder is exhausting.

Death reports new uniform love - as well as life, it turns love into destiny.

At first we don't love anyone. Then we love all humanity. Then some people, then the only woman, then the only man.

Consciously or unconsciously, women always enjoy a sense of honor and loyalty this word, which is so strongly developed in men.

It is easier to live with a bad reputation than with a good one, because a good reputation is difficult to maintain, you need to be on top all the time - after all, any failure is tantamount to a crime. With a bad reputation, breakdowns are forgivable.

There is no justice, there are only limits.

Growing old means moving from feeling to empathy.

A passion for prison among those who struggle. To get rid of attachments.

The desire to always be right is a sign of a vulgar mind.

The secret of my world: to imagine God without human immortality.

Those who love the truth should seek love in marriage, that is, love without illusions.

Anyone who does not believe in God sees only chaos in a world where people are not valued and gives in to despair.

He who does not believe in the course of things is a coward, but he who believes in human destiny is a madman.

He who does not kill himself must remain silent about life.

What I have been looking for for so long finally appears. Preparedness for death.

It is true that life is the strongest, but it lies at the root of all baseness. The opposite must be openly stated.

Tragedy is generated by the collision of two equally legitimate forces that have an equal right to life. Consequently, a weak tragedy is one that brings into play illegal forces. Consequently, a strong tragedy is one that legitimizes everything.

Every suffering, excitement, passion has a time when they belong to the person himself with his unique individuality, and another time when they begin to belong to art. But in the first moments, art is powerless to do anything with them. Art is the distance by which time removes suffering from us.

It is amazing how vain a person is who wants to convince himself and others that he is striving for truth, while he thirsts for love.

Solitude is a luxury of the rich.

Art has bouts of chastity. It cannot call a spade a spade.

Love has its own honor. Once you lose her, love ends.

To die in the name of an idea is the only way be on top of the idea.

To die without deciding anything. But who dies having decided everything except?.. Decide at least how not to disturb the peace of those you loved... We owe ourselves nothing, not even - and especially - the peace before death.

We don't have enough time to be ourselves. We only have enough time to be happy.

...The statement that a person is capable of improving is itself controversial. But the statement that a person is kind, coming from the lips of a person who has lived...

Physical jealousy is, to a large extent, self-judgment. Knowing what you yourself are capable of thinking about, you decide that she is thinking about the same thing.

Philosophies matter as much as philosophers matter. The more greatness there is in a person, the more truth there is in his philosophy.

Philosophy - modern form shamelessness.

Civilization is not about more or less sophistication. But in a consciousness common to the whole people. And this consciousness is never subtle. On the contrary, it is quite healthy.

To imagine civilization as a creation of the elite means to identify it with culture, while these are completely different things.

What is a person worth? What is a person? After what I saw, for the rest of my life my mistrust and all-encompassing anxiety towards him will not disappear.

...A person is always a prey to the truths he professes.

Man is a religious animal.

A thinking person usually engages in trying to reconcile his ideas about things with new facts that refute them. In this shift, in this variability of thoughts, in this conscious correction lies the truth, that is, the lesson taught by life.

A person will not become free until he overcomes the fear of death. But not by suicide.

You cannot overcome by giving up. To be able to die, looking death in the eye, without bitterness.

Man is not only a social being. At least he has control over his death. We are created to live side by side with others. But we truly die only for ourselves.

A person feels lonely when he is surrounded by cowards.

What guides the heart? Love? What could be more unreliable? You can know what love suffering is, but not know what love is. There is loss, and regret, and empty hands. Let me not burn with passion, melancholy will remain with me. Hell, where everything promises heaven. And yet this is hell. I call life and love what devastates me. Departure, coercion, breakup, my hopeless heart torn to shreds, the salty taste of tears and love.

The more tragic a person’s lot, the more inexorable and defiant hope becomes.

Pure love is dead love, if you mean love love life, the creation of a certain way of life - in such a life, pure love turns into a constant reference to something else, which needs to be agreed upon.

What could be better for a person than poverty? I am not talking about the poverty or hopeless toil of the modern proletarian. But I don’t know what could be better than poverty combined with active leisure.

What is unbearable for women in affection without the love that their man gives them. For a man - bitter tenderness.

The feelings we experience do not transform us, but they suggest to us the idea of transformation. Thus, love does not save us from selfishness, but makes us aware of it and reminds us of a distant homeland, where selfishness has no place.

What is a celebrity? This is a person whom everyone knows by his last name, and therefore his name does not matter. For everyone else, the name is significant.

I love everything or I love nothing. So I don't like anything.

I don't like other people's secrets. But I'm interested in other people's confessions.

I can't live without beauty. And this explains my weakness towards some people.

I am not created for politics, because I am incapable of either wishing for the death of my opponent or accepting it.

I know myself too well to believe in immaculate virtue.

I withdrew from the world not because I had enemies, but because I had friends. Not because they harmed me, as is usually the case, but because they considered me better than I am. I couldn't stand this lie.

It is useless to turn to God because you are disappointed in earthly life, and pain has separated you from the world. God pleases souls attached to the world. He loves your joy.

One single blow of a dagger, swift as lightning - the bull's copulation is chaste. This is the copulation of the deity. Not pleasure, but burn and sacred self-destruction.

Responsibility to history frees us from responsibility to people. This is its convenience.

It’s disgusting when a writer talks and writes about something he hasn’t experienced.

Only those who control themselves can surrender. It happens that they give themselves up in order to get rid of their own insignificance. You can only give what you have. Become your own master - and only then give up.

Why do people drink? Because after drinking everything is filled with meaning, everything reaches its highest intensity. Conclusion: people drink out of helplessness or as a sign of protest.

It's a stunning sight to see how easily some people's dignity is destroyed. But if you think about it, there is nothing strange here, because the dignity in question was maintained in them only through a tireless struggle with their own nature.

The first task of the mind is to distinguish between true and false.

The writer is doomed to understand. He can't become a killer.

Love must come first, followed by morality. The opposite is painful.

It is better for the writer to understate than to say too much. In any case, no chatter.

The most peaceful thing would be to love in silence. But consciousness and personality come into play; we have to talk. And love turns to hell.

Politicians do not realize how inimical equality is to freedom. In Greece there were free people because there were slaves.

Truth is mysterious, elusive, and always has to be conquered anew.

Why am I an artist and not a philosopher? Because I think in words, not ideas.

To sentence a person to death means to deprive him of the opportunity to reform.

The problem of art is the problem of translation. Bad writers are those who write taking into account an internal context unknown to the reader. You need to write as if together: the main thing here, as elsewhere, is to learn to control yourself.

A psychology that boils down to digging into details is wrong. People search for themselves, study. To know yourself, to assert yourself. Psychology is action, not soul-searching. A person is in search throughout his life. To know yourself completely means to die.

Travel like the most great science and serious science helps us find ourselves again.

The joy of life scatters attention, disperses it, and stops any upward striving. But to live without joy... This means there is no way out. Is it possible to draw life from great love without fear of punishment by repentance.

Unbridled sensuality leads to the belief that the world is meaningless. Chastity, on the contrary, returns meaning to the world.

Sooner or later, there always comes a moment when people stop fighting and torturing each other, and finally come to terms with the fact that they must love the other as they are. This is the kingdom of heaven.

The greatest economy that is possible in the field of thought is to agree that the world is unknowable and to concern ourselves with man.

The most dangerous temptation: not to be like anyone else.

Freedom of art is inexpensive when its only meaning is the spiritual comfort of the artist.

Free is the one who can not lie.

Holiness is also a rebellion: the saint rejects things as they are. He takes upon himself all the grief of the world.

Sex leads nowhere. He is not immoral, but sterile. You can do it until you want to create. But only a chaste person can improve.

Hell is a special mercy awarded to those who persistently sought it.
Without despair for life there is no love for life.
The gods rewarded man with great, brilliant virtues that allow him to achieve everything he wants. But at the same time they rewarded him with a more bitter virtue, instilling in him contempt for everything that he had achieved.
Illness is a cross, but maybe also a support. The ideal would be to take her strength and reject her weaknesses. Let it become a refuge that gives strength to right moment. And if we have to pay with suffering and renunciation, we will pay.
Only those who have subjugated them can live by passions.

Perhaps my love for stone draws me to sculpture. The sculpture returns weight and indifference to the human form, without which I cannot imagine greatness.
To be a pagan for oneself, a Christian for others - every person instinctively inclines towards this.
There must be love in life - one great love in a lifetime, this justifies the causeless attacks of despair to which we are subject.
In life, every minute is fraught with miracle and eternal youth.
At some point you stop feeling the excitement of love. All that remains is tragedy. Living for the sake of someone or something is becoming meaningless. Only the thought of being able to die for something makes sense.
At a certain age, conflicts between people begin to become complicated by the struggle against time. And it's already hopeless.
Unlike us, women at least don't have to strive for greatness. In men, even faith, even humility are called upon to prove greatness. It's so tiring.
In death, play and heroism find their true meaning.
The great question of life is how to live among people.
The eternal temptation against which I constantly wage a grueling battle is cynicism.
Rebellious atheism puts history in the place of God and replaces rebellion with absolute obedience. Duty and virtue for him are nothing more than complete submission and complete sacrifice of oneself to the shrine of insatiable development.
Will is the same loneliness.
I consider the question of the meaning of life to be the most urgent of all questions.
Time moves slowly when you keep track of it. It senses being watched. But it takes advantage of our absent-mindedness. It is even possible that there are two times: the one we follow and the one that transforms us.
Any life devoted to the pursuit of money is death. Resurrection is in selflessness.
All philosophy is self-justification. Only a philosophy that justifies another person would be original.
The highest virtue is to stifle your passions. The deeper virtue is to bring them into balance.
Genius may be just a fleeting opportunity. Only work and will can give it life and turn it into glory.
Genius, in its highest incarnation, creates so that the last of the unfortunates in the darkest hard labor will gain dignity in the eyes of people and in their own.
The main ability of a person is the ability to forget. But in fairness, it should be noted that he forgets even the good that he himself has created.
The main thing that a writer must be able to do is to transform the feelings that he experiences into those that he wants to inspire. At first he succeeds by accident. But then talent must take the place of chance. This means that the origins of genius lie in chance.
The years of youth drag on so slowly because they are full of events; the years of old age pass so quickly because they are predetermined.
The Greeks took into account the existence of a deity. But not everything was limited to the deity.
Rough physical desire flares up instantly. But desire coupled with tenderness takes time. You have to go through the whole land of love to get excited about desire. Is this why at first you so reluctantly desire the one you love?
Humanism has not yet bored me: I even like it. But it's too small for me.
For me, art is not the fun of a lonely creator. For me this is a way to touch as much as possible more people, creating the most capacious picture of common suffering and joy.
In order for a thought to transform the world, it must first transform the life of its creator.
For Christians, history begins with Revelation. For Marxists it ends there. Two religions.
It is more beneficial for a person to be portrayed in a favorable light than to be endlessly reproached for his shortcomings. Every person naturally tries to resemble his best image. This rule applies to pedagogy, history, philosophy, and politics. We, for example, are the fruit of twenty centuries of contemplation of pictures based on the Gospel story.
For a wise man there are no secrets in the world; what need does he have to wander in eternity?
During the day, the flight of birds always seems aimless, but in the evening their movements become purposeful. They are flying towards something. The same, perhaps, with people who have reached the evening of life. Does life ever have an evening?
Until a person has mastered desire, he has not mastered anything.
Before the Christian era, Buddha did not manifest himself because he was immersed in nirvana, that is, without form.
The virtue of the poor is generosity of spirit.
The potter's daughter Dibutad saw the shadow of her lover on the wall and traced his profile with a dagger. Thanks to this design, her father invented the style of painting that decorates Greek vases. The basis of all things is love.
The only possible brotherhood in our time, the only one that is offered and allowed to us, is the vile and dubious brotherhood of soldiers in the face of death.
If I were destined to die far from the world, in a cold prison cell, the sea would at the last moment flood my prison, raise me to a height unknown to me before and help me die without hatred in my soul.
If only our era were tragic! But she is also vile. That's why she needs to drop the accusation - and grant forgiveness.
If in order to overcome nihilism one must return to Christianity, one can go even further and, having overcome Christianity, return to Hellenism.
If the body yearns for the soul, there is no reason to believe that eternal life the soul does not suffer from separation from the body - and, therefore, does not dream of returning to earth.
There is only one truly serious philosophical question- question about suicide. To decide whether life is worth living or not is to answer the fundamental question of philosophy.
Errors are joyful, truth is terrible.
Have the strength to choose what you like and not give up. Otherwise it's better to die.
The individualist hates people in general, but spares individual.
The truth of our age: after going through severe trials, we become liars.
Truth, like light, is blinding.
Every generation tends to consider itself called upon to remake the world.
Once war becomes a reality, any opinion that does not take it into account begins to sound incorrect.
When a person becomes wise and moral in old age, he is probably ashamed to remember his past actions that ran counter to the dictates of morality and wisdom. Too early or too late. There is no middle ground.
When you have already done everything you need to properly understand, accept and endure poverty, illness and your own shortcomings, there is one more step left to take.
When an artist decides to share the fate of everyone, he asserts himself as an individual.
It is better to be a free poor man than a rich slave. Of course, people want to be rich and free - and because of this they sometimes become poor slaves.
Love can despise chains, fortress walls several meters thick, and so on. But one has only to subordinate a tiny part of the soul to duty, and real love becomes impossible.
Love can be preserved for reasons that have nothing to do with love. For example, for moral reasons.
Love is not fair, but justice alone is not enough.
Love that cannot withstand confrontation with reality is not love. But in this case, the inability to love is the privilege of noble hearts.
Love. Cognition. It is the same.
People persistently confuse marriage and love, on the one hand, and happiness and love, on the other. Meanwhile, these are completely different things. That is why, although love is a very rare thing, there are happy ones among marriages.
Cowardice will always find a philosophical justification.
The world is beautiful, and outside of it there is no salvation.
How many “loving” men do you know who would refuse a beautiful and accessible woman? And if anyone refuses, it means he lacks temperament.
To remain silent is to believe in yourself.
We always exaggerate the importance of an individual's life. There are many people who do not know what to do with life - it is not so immoral to deprive them of it.
We can do everything to the best of our ability, understand everything, and then master everything. But we will never be able to find or create the power of love that was taken from us irrevocably.
A thinker moves forward only if he does not rush to conclusions, even if they seem obvious to him.
You can only think in images. If you want to be a philosopher, write novels.
Nothing can be built on love: it is escape, pain, moments of delight or a rapid fall.
You must either live in time, or die in it, or remove yourself from it for the sake of life, which rises above it.
Science explains what works, not what is.
The beginning of all great actions and thoughts is insignificant. Great deeds are often born at a street corner or at the entrance to a restaurant.
Only one thing is inevitable: death, everything else can be avoided. In the time space that separates birth from death, there is nothing predetermined: everything can be changed and you can even stop the war and live in peace, if you want it properly - very strongly and for a long time.
The artist’s misfortune is that he lives not quite in a monastery, and not quite in the world, and he is tormented by the temptations of both lives.
There is no such serious crime that clever man I wouldn't feel capable.
It is not difficult to imagine a European converting to the Buddhist faith, for this provides him with life after death, which the Buddha considers an irreparable evil, but which man desires with all his might.
No work of genius has ever been based on hatred or contempt.
Nietzsche, whose outward life was more than monotonous, proves that thought working alone is in itself a terrible adventure.
Nothing inspires more than the awareness of your hopeless situation.
We think one thing about the same thing in the morning and another in the evening. But where is the truth - in night thoughts or in daytime reflections?
It is useless to turn to God because you are disappointed in earthly life and pain has separated you from the world. God pleases souls attached to the world. He loves your joy.
Responsibility to history frees us from responsibility to people. This is its convenience.
Only those who control themselves can surrender. It happens that they give themselves up in order to get rid of their own insignificance. You can only give what you have. Become your own master - and only then give up.
Why do people drink? Because after drinking everything is filled with meaning, everything reaches its highest intensity. Conclusion: people drink out of helplessness or as a sign of protest.
Fiery works are created by ironic philosophers.
Politicians do not realize how inimical equality is to freedom. There were free people in Greece because there were slaves.
Truth is mysterious, elusive, and always has to be conquered anew.
Travel, as the greatest and most serious science, helps us find ourselves again.
Sooner or later, there always comes a moment when people stop fighting and torturing each other, and finally come to terms with the fact that they must love the other as they are. This is the kingdom of heaven.
It is easier to live with a bad reputation than with a good one, because a good reputation is difficult to maintain, you need to be on top all the time - after all, any failure is tantamount to a crime. With a bad reputation, breakdowns are forgivable.
The greatest economy that is possible in the field of thought is to agree that the world is unknowable and to concern ourselves with man.
The most dangerous temptation: not to be like anyone else.
Freedom of art is inexpensive when its only meaning is the spiritual comfort of the artist.
The one who can not lie is free.
Holiness is also a rebellion: the saint rejects things as they are. He takes upon himself all the grief of the world.
How many artists arrogantly refuse to recognize themselves as small people! But this awareness of their “smallness” would be enough to acquire true talent, otherwise inaccessible to them.
The death penalty. A criminal is killed because crime depletes a person's ability to live. He lived through everything, since he killed. He might die. Murder is exhausting.
Consciously or unconsciously, women always use the sense of honor and loyalty to this word, which is so strongly developed in men.
Growing old means moving from feeling to empathy.
The desire to always be right is a sign of a vulgar mind.
The secret of my world: to imagine God without human immortality.
Those who love the truth should seek love in marriage, that is, love without illusions.
Anyone who does not believe in God sees only chaos in a world where people are not valued, and surrenders to despair.
He who does not believe in the course of things is a coward, but he who believes in human destiny is a madman.
The better the actor succeeds in playing a tragic role, the less he goes to extremes. Immense horror is generated precisely by moderation.
Love has its own honor. Once you lose her, love ends.
We don't have enough time to be ourselves. We only have enough time to be happy.
It is amazing how vain a person is who wants to convince himself and others that he is striving for truth, while he thirsts for love.
Dying for the sake of an idea is the only way to rise to the occasion.
Physical jealousy is, to a large extent, self-judgment. Knowing what you yourself are capable of thinking about, you decide that she is thinking about the same thing.
Philosophies matter as much as philosophers matter. The more greatness there is in a person, the more truth there is in his philosophy.
Philosophy is a modern form of shamelessness.
What is a person worth? What is a person? After what I saw, for the rest of my life my mistrust and all-encompassing anxiety towards him will not disappear.
A person will not become free until he overcomes the fear of death. But not by suicide. You cannot overcome by giving up. To be able to die, looking death in the eye, without bitterness.
Man is not only a social being. At least he has control over his death. We are created to live side by side with others. But we truly die only for ourselves.
A person feels lonely when he is surrounded by cowards.
The human heart has an unfortunate tendency to call fate only that which crushes it.
The feelings we experience do not transform us, but they suggest to us the idea of transformation. Thus, love does not save us from selfishness, but makes us aware of it and reminds us of a distant homeland, where selfishness has no place.

French prose writer, philosopher, essayist, publicist, close to existentialism. Received common noun during his lifetime "Conscience of the West". Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957.

In life, every minute is fraught with miracle and eternal youth.

Time moves slowly when you keep track of it. It senses being watched. But it takes advantage of our absent-mindedness. It is even possible that there are two times: the one we follow and the one that transforms us.

Any life devoted to the pursuit of money is death. Resurrection is in selflessness.

Every accomplishment condemns you to slavery. It obliges you to higher achievements.

The highest virtue is to stifle your passions. The deeper virtue is to bring them into balance.

In order for a thought to transform the world, it must first transform the life of its creator.

Ancient philosophers thought much more than they read. Printing changed everything. Now they read more than they think. Instead of philosophy, we have only comments. The era of philosophers doing philosophy has been replaced by philosophy professors doing philosophers. It has gotten to the point that today no one would take a philosophical treatise that does not refer to any authorities, that is not supported by quotes and comments, seriously.

How to ensure that you do not waste time? - Feel time in its entirety: spend days in the dentist's waiting room on a hard chair; sitting on the balcony on a Sunday afternoon; listen to reports in a language you don’t understand; choose the longest and most inconvenient railway routes and, of course, ride trains while standing; hanging out in line at the theater box office and not getting a ticket to the show...

Truth shines like light.

Philosophies matter as much as philosophers matter. The more greatness there is in a person, the more truth there is in his philosophy.

A thinker moves forward if he does not rush to conclusions, even if they seem obvious to him.

Solitude is a luxury of the rich.

The only worthwhile things are humanity and simplicity.

There is no shame in being happy.

Do you know what charm is? The ability to feel someone say “yes” to you, even though you didn’t ask for anything.

Everything benefits the one who seeks this benefit.

French writer and philosopher Albert Camus was born on November 7, 1913, Mondovi, Algeria, into the family of an agricultural worker. Father died in the First world war. The mother, a Spanish woman, moved with her two sons to Algeria. They lived in poverty under the leadership of a headstrong grandmother. School teacher Louis Germain had a great influence on Camus; recognizing his student’s abilities, he helped Albert enter the Lyceum in 1923.

In 1930, Camus fell ill with tuberculosis. Despite the illness, I had to change many professions in order to pay for my studies at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Algiers. In 1934, Camus married Simone Iye, an extravagant nineteen-year-old girl who turned out to be a morphine addict. They didn't live together more than a year. In 1935 he received a bachelor's degree, and in May 1936 - a master's degree in philosophy, but the academic career of the young scientist was hindered by another outbreak of tuberculosis.

During my senior years at university I became interested in socialist ideas. In the spring of 1935 he joined the French communist party, where he was for more than a year, until he was expelled for connections with the Algerian people's party, accusing him of “Trotskyism.”

In 1936 he created the amateur “Theater of Labor”. Organized a production of The Brothers Karamazov based on Dostoevsky, playing Ivan Karamazov. In 1938 he was the editor of the Coast magazine and two opposition newspapers. Both newspapers were closed by military censorship at the beginning of World War II. During these years, Camus wrote a lot, in 1938 he published the book “Marriage”. In 1939 he wrote the first version of the play "Caligula".

In 1940 Camus future wife Francine Faure, a mathematician by training, moves to Paris. In 1942 he joined the underground resistance organization “Komba”; edited her illegal newspaper. After the end of the war, he continued to work at Komba, where he published his previously written works, which brought popularity to the writer.

In 1947, his gradual break with the leftist movement began. He leaves Combe and becomes a freelance journalist. At this time, he created the plays “State of Siege” and “The Righteous”.

In 1953, Camus returned to theatrical activities, staging performances based on his own dramatizations.

In 1957, Camus was awarded the Nobel Prize for his enormous contribution to literature. When Albert Camus received Nobel Prize, he was only 44 years old and, in his own words, had reached creative maturity.

The writer had extensive creative plans. However, these plans were not destined to come true. On January 4, 1960, the writer died in a car accident in the south of France. Ironically, he died not from illness, but due to a tragic accident. The unfinished autobiographical novel "First Man", a draft of which was found at the site of Camus' death, was published in 1994. He wrote the novels "The Stranger" (1942), "The Plague" (1947), "The Fall" (1956) and many others. works.

Although Camus's work has generated considerable controversy since his death, many critics consider him one of the most significant figures of his time. Camus showed the alienation and disappointment of the post-war generation, but stubbornly sought a way out of the absurdity of modern existence. The writer was sharply criticized for his rejection of Marxism and Christianity, but, nevertheless, his influence on modern literature is beyond doubt.

Hell is a special mercy awarded to those who persistently sought it.

Hell is life with this body, which is still better than non-existence.

To be created to create, to love and to conquer is to be created to live in the world. But war teaches us to lose everything and become something we were not.

The gods rewarded man with great, brilliant virtues that allow him to achieve everything he wants. But at the same time they rewarded him with a more bitter virtue, instilling in him contempt for everything that he had achieved.

To be a pagan for oneself, a Christian for others - every person instinctively inclines towards this.

Without despair in life there is no love of life.

The trouble of our century. Until recently, bad deeds needed justification; now good deeds need it.

Illness is a cross, but maybe also a support. The ideal would be to take her strength and reject her weaknesses. Let it become a refuge that gives strength at the right time. And if we have to pay with suffering and renunciation, we will pay.

Perhaps my love for stone draws me to sculpture. The sculpture returns weight and indifference to the human form, without which I cannot imagine greatness.

In life, every minute is fraught with miracle and eternal youth.

The great question of life is how to live among people.

The eternal temptation against which I constantly wage a grueling battle is cynicism.

Will is the same loneliness.

There must be love in life - one great love in a lifetime, this justifies the causeless attacks of despair to which we are subject.

Rebellious atheism puts history in the place of God and replaces rebellion with absolute obedience. Duty and virtue for him are nothing more than complete submission and complete sacrifice of oneself to the shrine of insatiable development.

Ultimately, the gospel is realistic, although it is usually considered unreal. It comes from the fact that a person cannot be sinless. But it can try to recognize his sinfulness, that is, forgive him. Judges are always to blame...Only those who are absolutely sinless can pass an absolute verdict...That is why God must be absolutely sinless.

In my youth, I demanded more from people than they could give: constancy in friendship, loyalty in feelings. Now I have learned to demand less from them than they can give: to be close and silent. And I always look at their feelings, their friendship, their noble deeds as a real miracle - as a gift from God.

Question: How can you avoid wasting time? Answer: Feel the full extent of time. Remedies: Spend your days in the dentist's waiting room on a hard chair; sitting on the balcony on a Sunday afternoon; listen to reports in a language you don’t understand; choose the longest and most inconvenient railway routes and, of course, ride trains while standing; hang around in line at the theater box office and not get a ticket to the show, etc. and so on..

Any life devoted to the pursuit of money is death. Resurrection is in selflessness.

Every accomplishment condemns you to slavery. It obliges you to higher achievements.

The highest virtue is to stifle your passions. The deeper virtue is to bring them into balance.

At some point you stop feeling the excitement of love. All that remains is tragedy. Living for the sake of someone or something is becoming meaningless. Only the thought of being able to die for something makes sense.

Let us imagine a thinker who, having published several books, declares in his new work: “Until now I have followed the wrong path. Now I'll start all over again. I realized that I was wrong,” after that no one will ever take him seriously. Meanwhile, by such an act he would prove his right to think.

At a certain age, conflicts between people begin to become complicated by the struggle against time. And it's already hopeless.

I consider the question of the meaning of life to be the most urgent of all questions.

It is impossible to enjoy forever; eventually fatigue sets in. Perfect. But why? In practice it is impossible to enjoy forever, because it is impossible to enjoy everything. When you think about all those pleasures that are completely inaccessible to you, you feel the same fatigue as when you think about those that you have already experienced. If in reality it were possible to embrace all pleasures without exception, would we feel tired?

The greatness of art lies in this eternal tense dichotomy between beauty and suffering, love for people and passion for creativity, the torment of loneliness and irritation from the crowd, rebellion and harmony. Art balances between two abysses - frivolity and propaganda. On the crest of the ridge along which a great artist moves forward, every step is an adventure, the greatest risk. In this risk, however, and only in this lies the freedom of art.

Unlike us, women at least don't have to strive for greatness. In men, even faith, even humility are called upon to prove greatness. It's so tiring.

Genius may be just a fleeting opportunity. Only work and will can give it life and turn it into glory.

The main ability of a person is the ability to forget. But in fairness, it should be noted that he forgets even the good that he himself has created.

For Christians, history begins with Revelation. For Marxists it ends there. Two religions.

For most people, war means the end of loneliness. For me she is the ultimate loneliness.

In order for a thought to transform the world, it must first transform the life of its creator.

Ancient philosophers thought much more than they read. Printing changed everything. Now they read more than they think. Instead of philosophy, we have only comments. This is what Gilson means when he says that the era of philosophers who practiced philosophy has been replaced by professors of philosophy who study philosophers. It has gotten to the point that today no one would take a philosophical treatise that does not refer to any authorities, that is not supported by quotes and comments, seriously.

The potter's daughter Dibutad saw the shadow of her lover on the wall and traced his profile with a dagger. Thanks to this design, her father invented the style of painting that decorates Greek vases. The basis of all things is love.

Until a person has mastered desire, he has not mastered anything.

Before the Christian era, Buddha did not manifest himself because he was immersed in nirvana, that is, without form.

The virtue of the poor is generosity of spirit.

During the day, the flight of birds always seems aimless, but in the evening their movements become purposeful. They are flying towards something. The same, perhaps, with people who have reached the evening of life... Does life have an evening?

It is more beneficial for a person to be portrayed in a favorable light than to be endlessly reproached for his shortcomings. Every person naturally tries to resemble his best image. This rule applies to pedagogy, history, philosophy, and politics. We, for example, are the fruit of twenty centuries of contemplation of pictures based on the Gospel story.

For a wise man there are no secrets in the world; what need does he have to wander in eternity?

The only possible brotherhood in our time, the only one that is offered and allowed to us, is the vile and dubious brotherhood of soldiers in the face of death.

If I were destined to die far from the world, in a cold prison cell, the sea would at the last moment flood my prison, raise me to a height unknown to me before and help me die without hatred in my soul.

There are still people who confuse individualism and selfishness. This means mixing two planes: social and metaphysical. “You are scattered.” To move from one way of life to another means to not have your own identity. But having your own face is a thought characteristic of a certain level of civilization. To others this may seem like the worst of misfortunes.

If happiness smiles on people consumed by deep melancholy, they do not know how to hide it: they attack happiness, as if they want to squeeze it in their arms and strangle it out of jealousy.

If you continue to sincerely love what is truly worthy of love, and do not waste your love on trifles, on trifles, on nonsense, you can little by little make your life brighter and become stronger.

If you have the good fortune to live in the world of the mind, what recklessness is it to seek access to the terrible, screaming world of passion.

The only freedom that can be opposed to the freedom to kill is the freedom to die, that is, to be freed from the fear of death and to find a place for this accident in nature...

If the soul exists, it would be wrong to think that it is given to us already created. It happens on earth throughout life. Life itself is nothing more than this long and painful birth. When the creation of the soul, which man owes to himself and to suffering, is completed, death comes.

If the body yearns for the soul, there is no reason to believe that in eternal life the soul does not suffer from separation from the body - and, therefore, does not dream of returning to earth.

If you say: “I don’t understand Christianity, I need consolation,” then you are a limited and biased person. But if, living without consolation, you say: “I understand the poetry of Christianity and admire it,” then you are a frivolous amateur. As for me, I am beginning to lose sensitivity to public opinion.

If in order to overcome nihilism one must return to Christianity, one can go even further and, having overcome Christianity, return to Hellenism.

If only our era were tragic! But she is also vile. That's why she needs to drop the accusation - and grant forgiveness.

There is only one truly serious philosophical problem - the problem of suicide. To decide whether life is or is not worth living is to answer a fundamental question in philosophy. Everything else - whether the world has three dimensions, whether the mind is guided by nine or twelve categories - is secondary. The myth of Sisyphus.

To live by your passions also means to live by your desires, in which there is a counterbalance to passions, an amendment to them and a payment for them. When a person knows how - and not in words, but in deeds - to remain alone with his suffering, to overcome his desire to escape, knows how not to trust the illusion that others are able to “share” his suffering with him, he no longer needs to learn anything. .

Only those who have subjugated them can live by passions.

Errors are joyful, truth is terrible.

The truth of our age: after going through severe trials, we become liars.

A truly high work always - like a Greek tragedy, like the works of Melville, Tolstoy or Moliere - brings reality and rebellion into balance, and they, imparting strength to each other, break through to the light, like an ever-beating spring of life itself, joyful and painful. It is then that sometimes a complete new world, different from the everyday and yet the same, special and at the same time universal, pure and unprotected, brought to life for a few hours by the strength and dissatisfaction of genius.

Have the strength to choose what you like and not give up. Otherwise it's better to die.

Truth, like light, is blinding.

Art balances between two abysses - frivolity and propaganda. On the crest of the ridge along which a great artist moves forward, every step is an adventure, the greatest risk. In this risk, however, and only in this, lies the freedom of art.

The individualist hates people in general, but spares the individual.

The temptation to destroy oneself and reject everything, not to be like anyone else, to destroy forever what defines us, to indulge in loneliness and non-existence, to find the only point of support where destinies can start over again every time. Temptation is constant. Should I give in to him or not? Is it possible to bring obsession with a work into the depths of an ebullient life, or is it necessary, on the contrary, to measure your life according to it, to submit to instant insights? Beauty is my main concern, as well as freedom.

Going to the end means not only resisting, but also giving yourself free rein. I need to feel my personality insofar as it contains the feeling of what is higher than me. Sometimes I need to write things that elude me, but they are the ones that prove that there is something stronger in me than I am.

Truth shines like light.

When a writer dies, his work begins to be overestimated. In the same way, when a person dies, they begin to overestimate his role among us. This means that the past is completely created by death, which populates it with illusions.

When a person becomes wise and moral in old age, he is probably ashamed to remember his past actions that ran counter to the dictates of morality and wisdom. Too early or too late. There is no middle ground.

When you have already done everything you need to properly understand, accept and endure poverty, illness and your own shortcomings, there is one more step left to take.

When an artist decides to share the fate of everyone, he asserts himself as an individual.

Every man dies a stranger.

Once war becomes a reality, any opinion that does not take it into account begins to sound incorrect.

When religion combines with politics, the Inquisition is born.

Beauty leads us to despair, it is eternity, lasting a moment, and we would like to extend it forever.

He who gives nothing has nothing. The greatest misfortune is not that you are not loved, but that you do not love yourself.

Love... Knowledge... It's the same thing.

Love is not fair, but justice alone is not enough.

People all wanted to understand where the war was - and what was vile about it... It was in the terrible loneliness of the one who fights and the one who remains in the rear, in the shameful despair that gripped everyone, and in the moral decline that over time appears on faces. The kingdom of beasts has arrived.

People persistently confuse marriage and love, on the one hand, and happiness and love, on the other. Meanwhile, these are completely different things. That is why, although love is a very rare thing, there are happy ones among marriages.

Love can despise chains, fortress walls several meters thick, and so on. But once you subordinate a tiny part of your soul to duty, true love becomes impossible.

It is better to be a free poor man than a rich slave. Of course, people want to be both rich and free - and because of this they sometimes become poor slaves.

Love that cannot withstand confrontation with reality is not love. But in this case, the inability to love is the privilege of noble hearts.

Love either grows stronger or degenerates. The more unhappy she is, the more crippling she is. If love is devoid of creative power, it forever deprives a person of the opportunity to truly create. She is a tyrant, and a mediocre tyrant at that.

We can do everything to the best of our ability, understand everything, and then master everything. But we will never be able to find or create the power of love that was taken from us irrevocably.

We always exaggerate the importance of an individual's life. There are many people who do not know what to do with life - it is not so immoral to deprive them of it.

A thinker moves forward if he does not rush to conclusions, even if they seem obvious to him.

Cowardice will always find a philosophical justification.

The world is beautiful, and outside of it there is no salvation.

How many “loving” men do you know who would refuse a beautiful and accessible woman? And if anyone refuses, it means he lacks temperament.

To remain silent is to believe in yourself.

You can only think in images. If you want to be a philosopher, write novels.

A painful feeling: you think that you are serving justice, but in fact you are increasing injustice. At least we admit it - and thereby aggravate the torment; after all, this is the same as admitting: universal justice does not exist. Having dared the most terrible rebellion, to finally admit your insignificance - that’s what’s painful.

It is not difficult to imagine a European converting to the Buddhist faith, for this provides him with life after death, which the Buddha considers an irreparable evil, but which man desires with all his might.

There is no such serious crime that an intelligent person would not feel capable of committing.

Science explains what works, not what is.

Nothing inspires more than the awareness of your hopeless situation.

The beginning of all great actions and thoughts is insignificant. Great deeds are often born at a street corner or at the entrance to a restaurant.

It’s not me who renounces people and things (I couldn’t), it’s people and things who renounce me. My youth is running away from me: this is the disease.

Nietzsche, whose outward life was more than monotonous, proves that thought working alone is in itself a terrible adventure.

Not to be loved is just failure, not to love is misfortune.

One must decide to introduce into the thinking apparatus the necessary distinction between obvious philosophy and pleasant philosophy. In other words, we can come to a philosophy that is disgusting to the mind and heart, but which suggests itself. So, for me, obvious philosophy is absurd. But this does not prevent me from having (or, more precisely, from considering) a pleasant philosophy. For example: an exact balance between the mind and the world, harmony, completeness, etc. Happy is the thinker who surrenders to his inclination, and the one who denies himself this - out of love for the truth, with regret, but decisively - is an exiled thinker.

Only one thing is inevitable - death, everything else can be avoided. In the time space that separates birth from death, there is nothing predetermined: everything can be changed and you can even stop the war and live in peace, if you want it properly - very strongly and for a long time.

You must either live in time, or die in it, or remove yourself from it for the sake of life, which rises above it.

Nothing can be built on love: it is escape, pain, moments of delight or a rapid fall.

The artist’s misfortune is that he lives not quite in a monastery, and not quite in the world - and he is tormented by the temptations of both lives.

No work of genius has ever been based on hatred or contempt.

Don't go ahead of me - I may not make it in time. Don't walk behind me - I might lead you in the wrong direction. Just walk next to me and be my friend.

Why do people drink? Because after drinking everything is filled with meaning, everything reaches its highest intensity. Conclusion: people drink out of helplessness or as a sign of protest.

We think one thing about the same thing in the morning and another in the evening. But where is the truth - in night thoughts or in daytime reflections?

It is useless to turn to God because you are disappointed in earthly life, and pain has separated you from the world. God pleases souls attached to the world. He loves your joy.

Some are created in order to love, others - in order to live.

Responsibility to history frees us from responsibility to people. This is its convenience.

The first task of the mind is to distinguish between true and false.

Fiery works are created by ironic philosophers.

Politicians do not realize how inimical equality is to freedom. There were free people in Greece because there were slaves.

Why am I an artist and not a philosopher? Because I think in words, not ideas.

Truth is mysterious, elusive, and always has to be conquered anew.

It is better for the writer to understate than to say too much.

When you think about all those pleasures that are completely inaccessible to you, you feel the same fatigue as when you think about those that you have already experienced.

Travel, as the greatest science and serious science, helps us find ourselves again.

The joy of life scatters attention, disperses it, and stops any upward striving. But to live without joy... So, there is no way out. Unless you draw life from great love, without fear of punishment by repentance.

To decide whether life is or is not worth living is to answer a fundamental question in philosophy. Everything else - whether the world has three dimensions, whether the mind is guided by nine or twelve categories - is secondary.

Injustice is either fought or cooperated.

Consciously or unconsciously, women always use the sense of honor and loyalty to this word, which is so strongly developed in men.

The desire to always be right is a sign of a vulgar mind.

The greatest economy that is possible in the field of thought is to agree that the world is unknowable and to concern ourselves with man.

The most dangerous temptation is not to be like anyone else.

Freedom is, first of all, not privileges, but responsibilities.

Freedom of art is inexpensive when its only meaning is the spiritual comfort of the artist.

Growing old means moving from feeling to empathy.

The one who can not lie is free.

Holiness is also a rebellion: the saint rejects things as they are. He takes upon himself all the grief of the world.

How many artists arrogantly refuse to recognize themselves as small people! But this awareness of their “smallness” would be enough to acquire true talent, otherwise inaccessible to them.

The death penalty. A criminal is killed because crime depletes a person's ability to live. He lived through everything, since he killed. He might die. Murder is exhausting.

Anxiety is just a slight aversion to the future.

The secret of my world: to imagine God without human immortality.

Anyone who does not believe in God sees only chaos in a world where people are not valued, and surrenders to despair.

He who does not believe in the course of things is a coward, but he who believes in human destiny is a madman.

The better the actor succeeds in playing a tragic role, the less he goes to extremes. Immense horror is generated precisely by moderation.

Those whom human justice or human malice keep behind bars impatiently push the present, glance hostilely at the past and are absolutely deprived of the future.

Those who love the truth should seek love in marriage, that is, love without illusions.

Art has bouts of chastity. It cannot call a spade a spade.

Love has its own honor. Once you lose her, love ends.

Solitude is a luxury of the rich.

It is amazing how vain a person is who wants to convince himself and others that he is striving for truth, while he thirsts for love.

The statement that a person is capable of improving is itself controversial. But the statement that a person is kind, coming from the lips of a person who has lived...

Dying for the sake of an idea is the only way to rise to the occasion.

We don't have enough time to be ourselves. We only have enough time to be happy.

Philosophies matter as much as philosophers matter. The more greatness there is in a person, the more truth there is in his philosophy.

Physical jealousy is, to a large extent, self-judgment. Knowing what you yourself are capable of thinking about, you decide that she is thinking about the same thing.

Philosophy is a modern form of shamelessness.

Civilization is not about more or less sophistication. But in a consciousness common to the whole people. And this consciousness is never subtle. On the contrary, it is quite healthy. To imagine civilization as a creation of the elite means to identify it with culture, while these are completely different things.

Man is not only a social being. At least he has control over his death. We are created to live side by side with others. But we truly die only for ourselves.

Man is a religious animal.

What is a person worth? What is a person? After what I saw, for the rest of my life my mistrust and all-encompassing anxiety towards him will not disappear.

A person will not become free until he overcomes the fear of death. But not by suicide. You cannot overcome by giving up. To be able to die, looking death in the eye, without bitterness.

The human heart has an unfortunate tendency to call fate only that which crushes it.

Man is always the prey of the truths he professes.

A person feels lonely when he is surrounded by cowards.

The more tragic a person’s lot, the more inexorable and defiant hope becomes.

What is a celebrity? This is a person whom everyone knows by his last name, and therefore his name does not matter. For everyone else, the name is significant.

In order not to waste time, you need to experience this time in its entirety.

Generosity towards the future is the ability to give everything related to the present.

I don't like other people's secrets. But I'm interested in other people's confessions.

The language that emphasizes in the word “passion” its relationship with suffering is right, although in everyday use, when we say “passion,” we rather mean a convulsive impulse that surprises us, and we forget that we're talking about about mental suffering...