
Five Essays on Liberty (2002), Two Concepts of Liberty (1958)
The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), Absurd Creation
Five Essays on Liberty (2002), Two Concepts of Liberty (1958)
“Joy comes, grief goes, we know not how;
Everything is happy now,
Everything is upward striving”
Prelude to Pt. I, st. 7
The Vision of Sir Launfal (1848)
Context: Joy comes, grief goes, we know not how;
Everything is happy now,
Everything is upward striving;
'Tis as easy now for the heart to be true
As for grass to be green or skies to be blue,—
'Tis the natural way of living:
Who knows whither the clouds have fled?
In the unscarred heaven they leave no wake;
And the eyes forget the tears they have shed,
The heart forgets its sorrow and ache;
The soul partakes the season's youth,
And the sulphurous rifts of passion and woe
Lie deep 'neath a silence pure and smooth,
Like burnt-out craters healed with snow.
“Nothing is more fatal to happiness than the remembrance of happiness.”
Source: The Immoralist
Source: Cannibals All!, or Slaves Without Masters (1857), p. 31
“The death penalty is being applied in the United States as a fatal lottery.”
“Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.”
Source: 1930s, The Conquest of Happiness (1930)