“There can be no true goodness, nor true love, without the utmost clear-sightedness.”

—  Albert Camus , book The Plague

The Plague (1947)
Context: The evil that is in the world always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence, if they lack understanding. On the whole men are more good than bad; that, however, isn't the real point. But they are more or less ignorant, and it is this that we call vice or virtue; the most incorrigible vice being that of an ignorance which fancies it knows everything and therefore claims for itself the right to kill. There can be no true goodness, nor true love, without the utmost clear-sightedness.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "There can be no true goodness, nor true love, without the utmost clear-sightedness." by Albert Camus?
Albert Camus photo
Albert Camus 209
French author and journalist 1913–1960

Related quotes

Pink (singer) photo

“True love, true love.
It must be true love.
Nothing else can break my heart like
True love, true love.
It must be true love.
No one else can break my heart like you.”

Pink (singer) (1979) American singer-songwriter

True Love, featuring Lily Allen, written by Pink, Greg Kurstin and Lily Allen
Song lyrics, The Truth About Love (2012)

Alethea Kontis photo

“It can't be 'true' love without the truth”

Alethea Kontis (1976) American writer

Source: Enchanted

Bernard of Clairvaux photo

“The true measure of loving God is to love Him without measure.”

Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153) French abbot, theologian

Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 395

Zakir Hussain (politician) photo

“If a good and true Muslim cannot be a nationalist, how can a good and true Hindu be expected to be a nationalist.”

Zakir Hussain (politician) (1897–1969) 3rd President of India

In Hindustan Times during the time of his election to the post of President of India, on his secular claims in: p. 331.
About Zakir Hussain, Quest for Truth (1999)

“Neither the good nor the true is self-realizing, so it is not generally a sufficient explanation of why people believe that X that X is true, or of why people do Y that Y is good.”

Raymond Geuss book Philosophy and Real Politics

Philosophy and Real Politics (2008).
Philosophy and Real Politics (2008)

Isaac of Nineveh photo

“True is the word of the Lord which declares that no man possessing love for the world can acquire the love of God, nor can any who has communion with the world have communion with God, nor can any who has concern for the world have concern for God.”

Isaac of Nineveh (640–700) Eastern Orthodox saint

Source: The Ascetical Homilies of Saint Isaac the Syrian, p. 428

Philip Larkin photo

“The mind blanks at the glare. Not in remorse
—The good not done, the love not given, time
Torn off unused—nor wretchedly because
An only life can take so long to climb
Clear of its wrong beginnings, and may never;
But at the total emptiness for ever,
The sure extinction that we travel to
And shall be lost in always. Not to be here,
Not to be anywhere,
And soon; nothing more terrible, nothing more true.”

Philip Larkin (1922–1985) English poet, novelist, jazz critic and librarian

Source: "Aubade", Times Literary Supplement, 23 December 1977

Prevale photo

“The distance often makes it clear how true a love is. Those who love deeply never fear a storm, they only fear that love will go out.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) La distanza spesso fa capire quanto sia vero un amore. Chi ama profondamente non teme mai una tempesta, teme solo che l'amore si spenga.
Source: prevale.net

Vincent Van Gogh photo

“It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is well done.”

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)

Quote of Vincent's letter to Theo, from Amsterdam, 3 April 1878; a cited in The Letters of Vincent van Gogh to his Brother, 1872-1886 (1927) Constable & Co
Variant: Love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well.
As quoted in Wisdom for the Soul : Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing (2006) by Larry Chang, p. 483
1870s
Context: If only we try to live sincerely, it will go well with us, even though we are certain to experience real sorrow, and great disappointments, and also will probably commit great faults and do wrong things, but it certainly is true, that it is better to be high-spirited, even though one makes more mistakes, than to be narrow-minded and all too prudent. It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love, is well done.

Related topics