1. Quotes
  2. Authors
  3. Albert Camus

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

Discover the profound wisdom of Albert Camus through his most famous quotes. Explore his thoughts on happiness, normalcy, ignorance, rebellion, and more. Dive into a world of thought-provoking ideas in less than 200 characters.

Albert Camus was a French philosopher, author, and political activist who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957. Born in Algeria, he grew up in a poor neighborhood and studied philosophy at the University of Algiers. During World War II, he joined the French Resistance and served as editor-in-chief at an outlawed newspaper. After the war, Camus became a renowned figure, giving lectures worldwide. He married twice but engaged in numerous extramarital affairs. With strong political beliefs, he opposed totalitarianism and was part of organizations promoting European integration. In terms of his philosophy, Camus's work influenced absurdism and some consider him an existentialist, although he rejected this label.

Camus's notable works include "The Stranger," "The Plague," "The Myth of Sisyphus," "The Fall," and "The Rebel." Despite being politically active, he maintained a neutral stance during the Algerian War and advocated for a multicultural and pluralistic Algeria, which was met with opposition from various parties. Ultimately, Albert Camus left a significant impact on literature and philosophy through his thought-provoking writings and distinct moral standpoint.

✵ 7. November 1913 – 4. January 1960
Albert Camus photo
Albert Camus: 209   quotes 35   likes

Albert Camus Quotes

“Everything considered, a determined soul will always manage.”

Albert Camus book The Myth of Sisyphus

Source: The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), An Absurd Reasoning, p. 170

Soul

“A living man can be enslaved and reduced to the historic condition of an object. But if he dies in refusing to be enslaved, he reaffirms the existence of another kind of human nature which refuses to be classified as an object.”

Albert Camus

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

Nature

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

Albert Camus book The Myth of Sisyphus

The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), Absurd Creation

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

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.”

Albert Camus book The Rebel

Source: The Rebel (1951), Chapter 1

“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.”

Albert Camus book The Myth of Sisyphus

The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), An Absurd Reasoning

Sleep , Time

“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.”

Albert Camus book The Myth of Sisyphus

The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), An Absurd Reasoning

Men , World

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

Albert Camus book The Rebel

Part 4: Rebellion and Art
The Rebel (1951)

Love , Passion

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

Albert Camus book Reflections on the Guillotine

Reflections on the Guillotine (1957)

Revenge

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

Albert Camus book The Rebel

The Rebel (1951)

Justice

“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.”

Albert Camus book The Stranger

The Stranger (1942)

Life , Way , Feeling , Thinking

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

Albert Camus book The Myth of Sisyphus

Kirilov
The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), Absurd Creation

God

“"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.”

Albert Camus book The Myth of Sisyphus

The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), The Absurd Man

Courage , Nostalgia , Freedom , Time

“I rebel — therefore we exist.”

Albert Camus book The Rebel

The Rebel (1951)

“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.”

Albert Camus

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)

Men , Time

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

Albert Camus book The Rebel

Part 4: Rebellion and Art
The Rebel (1951)

Art , Reality

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

Albert Camus book The Fall

The Fall (1956)

“Every rebellion implies some kind of unity.”

Albert Camus book The Rebel

The Rebel (1951)

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

Albert Camus book The Myth of Sisyphus

The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), An Absurd Reasoning

Way , Thinking

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

Albert Camus book A Happy Death

A Happy Death (1971)

Life

“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.”

Albert Camus book The Myth of Sisyphus

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

God , Age , Parting

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

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.

Love , People

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

Albert Camus

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

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

Albert Camus book The Plague

The Plague (1947)

Thinking

“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)

Waiting

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

Albert Camus book The Rebel

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)

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

Albert Camus book The Rebel

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

Justice , Idea , Freedom

“An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself.”

Albert Camus

Notebooks (1942–1951)

“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.”

Albert Camus

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

Life , World , Disappointment , Feeling

“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.”

Albert Camus book The Fall

The Fall (1956)

Reading , Books , Reality , Love

“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

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

Deep , Friendship , For Friend , For Bestfriend