Albert Camus: Trending quotes

“"My field," said Goethe, "is time." That is indeed the absurd speech. What, in fact, is the Absurd Man? He who, without negating it, does nothing for the eternal. Not that nostalgia is foreign to him. But he prefers his courage and his reasoning. The first teaches him to live without appeal and to get along with what he has; the second informs him of his limits. Assured of his temporally limited freedom, of his revolt devoid of future, and of his mortal consciousness, he lives out his adventure within the span of his lifetime.”

Kirilov
The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), Absurd Creation

“I rebel — therefore we exist.”

The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), The Absurd Man

“Poor and free rather than rich and enslaved. Of course, men want to be both rich and free, and this is what leads them at times to be poor and enslaved.”

The Rebel (1951)

“Art is the activity that exalts and denies simultaneously. "No artist tolerates reality," says Nietzsche.”

Pauvre et libre plutôt que riche et asservi. Bien entendu les hommes veulent être et riches et libres et c’est ce qui les conduit quelquefois à être pauvres et esclaves.
Notebooks (1942–1951)

“Martyrs must choose between being forgotten, mocked, or made use of. As for being understood—never!”

Part 4: Rebellion and Art
The Rebel (1951)

Albert Camus book The Fall

The Fall (1956)

“Every rebellion implies some kind of unity.”

“Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is.”

The Rebel (1951)

“The preceding merely defines a way of thinking. But the point is to live.”

Introduction
The Rebel (1951)

“It's better to bet on this life than on the next.”

The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), An Absurd Reasoning

Albert Camus book A Happy Death

A Happy Death (1971)

“This was her finest role and the hardest one to play. Choosing between heaven and a ridiculous fidelity, preferring oneself to eternity or losing oneself in God is the age-old tragedy in which each must play his part.”

“We always deceive ourselves twice about the people we love — first to their advantage, then to their disadvantage.”

Source: The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), Absurd Creation, p. 83

Albert Camus book A Happy Death

Nous nous trompons toujours deux fois sur ceux que nous aimons: d'abord à leur avantage, puis à leur désavantage.
A Happy Death (written 1938), first published as La mort heureuse (1971), as translated by Richard Howard (1972)
Variant: He discovered the cruel paradox by which we always deceive ourselves twice about the people we love — first to their advantage, then to their disadvantage.

“Great novelists are philosopher-novelists who write in images instead of arguments.”

“The important thing isn't the soundness or otherwise of the argument, but for it to make you think.”

This may have arisen as a paraphrase of statements found in The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), "An Absurd Reasoning", or one found in The Novelist as Philosopher: Studies in French Fiction 1935-1960 (1962) edited by John Cruikshank, p. 218
Disputed

Albert Camus book The Plague

The Plague (1947)

“Do not wait for the Last Judgment. It takes place every day.”

Albert Camus book The Fall

Variant translations: I shall tell you a great secret, my friend. Do not wait for the Last Judgment. It takes place every day.
Do not await the last Judgement. It takes place everyday.
You needn't await the Final Judgment. It takes place every day.
The Fall (1956)

“A character is never the author who created him. It is quite likely, however, that an author may be all his characters simultaneously.”

“Absolute freedom mocks at justice. Absolute justice denies freedom. To be fruitful, the two ideas must find their limits in each other.”

Part 2: Metaphysical Rebellion; also quoted in Albert Camus : The Invincible Summer (1958) by Albert Maquet, p. 86; a remark made about the Marquis de Sade
The Rebel (1951)

“An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself.”

"Historical Murder", as translated by Anthony Bower
The Rebel (1951)

“Life continues, and some mornings, weary of the noise, discouraged by the prospect of the interminable work to keep after, sickened also by the madness of the world that leaps at you from the newspaper, finally convinced that I will not be equal to it and that I will disappoint everyone—all I want to do is sit down and wait for evening. This is what I feel like, and sometimes I yield to it.”

Notebooks (1942–1951)