Martyrs, my friend, have to choose between being forgotten, mocked or used. As for being understood – never.
albert Camusquotes
1913 - 1960
French-Algerian novelist and essayist, Albert Camus (1913-1960) is often called a “spokesman for his generation” and a “mentor for the next.” His dominant contribution to philosophy was his reflection on the Absurd. In The Myth of Sisyphus he calls for a revolt against the futile search for the meaning of life, and to fight for values like truth, moderation and justice while creating personal meaning and autonomy.
In an era of nihilists and communists, Camus was neither and often wrote against such ideas (and often fought drunk, offended communists). During the Nazi Occupation in Paris, Camus joined a resistance movement and wrote as an underground journalist. As a political theorist, he outlined ideas for a liberal humanism that rejected Christian and Marxist dogma.
His dedicated search for moral order (The Rebel), his consistent assertion for human dignity and fraternity (The Plague) won him the Nobel Peace Prize for Literature in 1957 at the age of 44. In characteristic modesty, Camus asserted it should have gone to André Malraux.
Perhaps surprisingly, it was as a playwright that he found the most satisfaction and personal success. His adaptations of Requiem for a Nun and Possession are his most recognized contributions to the theater.
Writing always beyond his ability, Camus said this practice inspired continual effort, but also caused personal exhaustion. He wrestled with depression, and wrote under the burden of perfectionism – never happy in his work, yet always pressing onward.
Camus died in a car accident at the age of 46; his death considered a tragic loss to literature.
To be born to create, to love, to win at games is to be born to live in time of peace. But war teaches us to lose everything and become what we were not. It all becomes a question of style.
What more ghastly image can be called up than that of a man betrayed by his body who, simply because he did not die in time, lives out the comedy while awaiting the end, face to face with that God he does not adore, serving him as he served life, kneeling before a void and arms outstretched toward a heaven without eloquence that he knows to be also without depth?
As for those whose role it is to love us – I mean, relatives and in-laws (what a word) – It’s a different tune. They find the right word, but it’s usually the one that wounds.
There are people who vindicate the world, who help others live just by their presence.
Our civilization survives in the complacency of cowardly or malignant minds – a sacrifice to the vanity of aging adolescents.
What did it matter if he existed for two or for twenty years? Happiness was the fact that he had existed.
Every achievement is a servitude. It compels us to a higher achievement.
How do you put everyone in the pool, so you have the right to dry yourself in the sun?
You know very well that I no longer think. I am far too intelligent for that.