Albert Camus Quotes page 4 209 Quotes on Happiness, Normalcy, Ignorance, Rebellion, and More

“One recognizes one's course by discovering the paths that stray from it.”

"The Failing of Prophecy" in Existentialism Versus Marxism : Conflicting Views on Humanism (1966) by George Edward Novack

“Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday; I can't be sure.”

The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), Absurd Creation

Albert Camus book The Stranger

Aujourd'hui maman est morte. Ou peut-être hier, je ne sais pas.
First sentences of the book; some translations retain the original Maman.
The Stranger (1942)

“What is a rebel? A man who says no.”

“It happens that the stage sets collapse. Rising, streetcar, four hours in the office or the factory, meal, streetcar, four hours of work, meal, sleep and Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday and Saturday according to the same rhythm — this path is easily followed most of the time. But one day the "why" arises and everything begins in that weariness tinged with amazement.”

Source: The Rebel (1951), Chapter 1

“To two men living the same number of years, the world always provides the same sum of experiences. It is up to us to be conscious of them.”

The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), An Absurd Reasoning

“No human being, even the most passionately loved and passionately loving, is ever in our possession.”

The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), An Absurd Reasoning

“A punishment that penalizes without forestalling is indeed called revenge.”

Part 4: Rebellion and Art
The Rebel (1951)

Albert Camus book Reflections on the Guillotine

Reflections on the Guillotine (1957)

“The slave begins by demanding justice and ends by wanting to wear a crown. He must dominate in his turn.”

“Of course, I had to own that he was right; I didn't feel much regret for what I'd done. Still, to my mind, he overdid it, and I'd have liked to have a chance of explaining to him, in a quite friendly, almost affectionate way, that I have never been able to really regret anything in all my life. I've always been far too much absorbed in the present moment, or the immediate future, to think back.”

The Rebel (1951)

Albert Camus book The Stranger

The Stranger (1942)

“To become god is merely to be free on this earth, not to serve an immortal being.”

“"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

“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.”

A Happy Death (1971)

“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

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

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.

“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)

“The opposite of an idealist is too often a man without love.”

"Letter to P.B." in Lyrical and Critical Essays (1970)

“I don't want to be a genius — I have enough problems just trying to be a man.”

A Happy Death (1971)

“Blessed are the hearts that can bend; they shall never be broken.”

“Thus I progressed on the surface of life, in the realm of words as it were, never in reality. All those books barely read, those friends barely loved, those cities barely visited, those women barely possessed! I went through the gestures out of boredom or absent-mindedness. Then came the human beings, they wanted to cling, but there was nothing to cling to, and that was unfortunate – for them. As for me, I forgot. I never remembered anything but myself.”

A Happy Death (1971)

Albert Camus book The Fall

The Fall (1956)

“Friendship often ends in love, but love in friendship - never.”

“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.”

“But in the end one needs more courage to live than to kill himself.”

Widely attributed, but likely apocryphal. https://quoteinvestigator.com/2015/08/23/friend/ Researchers have searched for this quote unsuccessfully in Camus' extant works. <br class="br">Disputed