quotes by Albert Camus

"Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend."
— Albert Camus

"In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer."
— Albert Camus

"Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is."
— Albert Camus

"You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life."
— Albert Camus

"Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal."
— Albert Camus

"Live to the point of tears."
— Albert Camus

"The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself."
— Albert Camus

"Do not wait for the last judgment. It comes every day."
— Albert Camus

"Charm is a way of getting the answer 'yes' without asking a clear question."
— Albert Camus

"It is the job of thinking people not to be on the side of the executioners."
— Albert Camus

"At the heart of all beauty lies something inhuman."
— Albert Camus

"An intellectual? Yes. And never deny it. An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself. I like this, because I am happy to be both halves, the watcher and the watched. "Can they be brought together?" This is a practical question. We must get down to it. "I despise intelligence" really means: "I cannot bear my doubts."
— Albert Camus

"A man's work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first opened."
— Albert Camus

"I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain. One always finds one's burden again. But Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks. He too concludes that all is well. This universe henceforth without a master seems to him neither sterile nor futile. Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of that night-filled mountain, in itself, forms a world. The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy."
— Albert Camus

"I have no idea what's awaiting me, or what will happen when this all ends. For the moment I know this: there are sick people and they need curing."
— Albert Camus (The Stranger)

"Idleness is fatal only to the mediocre."
— Albert Camus

"Man is always prey to his truths. Once he has admitted them, he cannot free himself from them."
— Albert Camus

"Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present."
— Albert Camus

"Should I kill myself, or have a cup of coffee?"
— Albert Camus

"There are crimes of passion and crimes of logic. The boundary between them is not clearly defined."
— Albert Camus