The Fall

by Albert Camus

You have to be methodical when you have no character.

Judges punished the crime, the accused atoned for it, and I, free of all responsibility, beyond judgement or punishment, reigned at liberty, bathed in a prelapsarian glow.

You know what charm is: a way of obtaining the answer ‘yes’ without having asked a clear question.

I loved women as partners in a kind of game which did, at least, have a feeling of innocence.

No man is a hypocrite in his pleasures. Now, did I read that somewhere, my dear fellow, or did I think it?

I have never been able to believe, deep inside, that human affairs are serious matters.

To be honest, alcohol and women have given me the only release I deserved. I am entrusting this secret to you, dear friend; don’t be afraid to make use of it; then you will see that true debauchery is liberating because it creates no obligation. In it, one possesses only oneself, so it remains the chosen occupation of those who are great lovers of their own persons. It is a jungle, with no future or past, above all with no promises or immediate sanctions. The places where it happens are cut off from the world: you abandon fear, like hope, as you enter. You don’t have to make conversation. What you have come for can be had without words and even, often – it’s true – without money.

Each man bears witness to the crime of all the others: this is my faith and hope.

Don’t wait for the Last Judgement, it takes place every day.

There are always reasons for a man’s murder. What’s impossible, on the contrary, is to justify letting him continue to live. That’s why there are always lawyers for the prosecution and only sometimes for the defence.

Yes, in this world one can make war, play at love, torture one’s fellow man, show off in the newspapers or merely speak ill of one’s neighbour while knitting. But in some cases carrying on, just carrying on, is the superhuman achievement.

A person who obeys a law is not afraid of judgement: it restores him to a system in which he believes. But the greatest of human torments is to be judged without a law.

At one time my house was full of half-read books. That’s as disgusting as people who take one piece of foie gras and throw the rest away.