while reading a small book of Camus’ essays in the bathroom, i rediscovered an old hero of mine. (Albert Camus, 1913–60).
some essay excerpts:
Now the ashes in the grate are beginning to choke the fire. And still the same sigh from the earth. – Albert Camus, Between Yes and No, 1937
It is indeed true that we live in tragic times. But too many people confuse tragedy with despair. This world is poisoned by its misery, and seems to wallow in it. Let us not contribute to it. It is vain to weep over the mind, it is enough to labour for it. – Albert Camus, The Almond Trees, 1940
Myths have a life of their own. They wait for us to clothe them in flesh. – Albert Camus, Prometheus in the Underworld, 1946
For the Greeks, values were pre-existent to every action,and marked out its exact limits. Modern philosophy places values at the end of action. – Albert Camus, Helen’s Exile, 1948
No man can say what he is. But he can sometimes say what he is not. People want the man who is still seeking to have already reached his conclusion. – Albert Camus, The Enigma, 1950
I had begun with fullness. What had followed was barbed wire: I mean tyrannies, war, police forces, the time of revolt. For the men of today there is an inner path which leads from the hills of the mind to the capitals of crime. – Albert Camus, Return to Tipasa, 1953
The Absurd Man 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. – Albert Camus, The Absurd Man
a few Camus quotes:
An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself.
Integrity has no need of rules.
Man is the only creature that refuses to be what he is.
To know oneself, one should assert oneself. Psychology is action, not thinking about oneself. We continue to shape our personality all our life. If we knew ourselves perfectly, we should die.
We are all special cases.
The only real progress lies in learning to be wrong all alone.
To be happy we must not be too concerned with others.
What is a rebel? A man who says no.
We all carry within us our places of exile, our crimes, and our ravages. But our task is not to unleash them on the world; it is to fight them in ourselves and in others.
Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better.
In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.