“At this point of his effort man stands face to face with the irrational. He feels within him his longing for happiness and for reason. The absurd is born of this confrontation between the human need and the unreasonable silence of the world.”

The quote "At this point of his effort man stands face to face with the irrational. He feels within …" is famous quote by Albert Camus (1913–1960), French author and journalist.

The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), An Absurd Reasoning
Context: At this point of his effort man stands face to face with the irrational. He feels within him his longing for happiness and for reason. The absurd is born of this confrontation between the human need and the unreasonable silence of the world. This must not be forgotten. This must be clung to because the whole consequence of a life can depend on it. The irrational, the human nostalgia, and the absurd that is born of their encounter — these are the three characters in the drama that must necessarily end with all the logic of which an existence is capable.

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Albert Camus photo
Albert Camus 209
French author and journalist 1913–1960

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“This divorce between man and his life, the actor and his setting, is properly the feeling of absurdity.”

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