The Fall

by Albert Camus

Have you noticed that death alone awakens our feelings? How we love the friends who have just left us?

But do you know why we are always more just and more generous toward the dead? The reason is simple. With them there is no obligation.

I was alternately stimulated and depressed. Life became less easy for me: when the body is sad the heart languishes.

Somebody has to have the last word. Otherwise, every reason can be answered with another one and there would never be an end to it. Power, on the other hand, settles everything.

The truth is that every intelligent man, as you know, dreams of being a gangster and of ruling over society by force alone.

Men are never convinced of your reasons, of your sincerity, of the seriousness of your sufferings, except by your death.

Once my solitude was thoroughly proved, I could surrender to the charms of a virile self-pity.