Albert Camus
French writer and philosopher (1913 to 1960), born in Algeria, author of The Stranger, The Plague and The Myth of Sisyphus, and winner of the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Albert Camus did not write this page. ppll compiled it from their own words, each linked to the source. Is this you? · Report a mistake
What they believe
-
It is legitimate and necessary to ask whether life has meaning, and so to face suicide squarely
The fundamental subject of The Myth of Sisyphus is this: it is legitimate and necessary to wonder whether life has a meaning; therefore it is legitimate to meet the problem of suicide face to face.
books.google.comSaid c. 1955This on korrents
The bold line is korrents’ wording; the quote is theirs. These one: what they wrote before what they said aloud, one per source, newest first.
Beliefs
Korrents What they believe 19 beliefs — each backed by an exact quote.
Each is a — compiled by korrents.com, not by them: the one-line wordings are korrents', the quotes are theirs.
Recent
It is legitimate and necessary to ask whether life has meaning, and so to face suicide squarely
The fundamental subject of The Myth of Sisyphus is this: it is legitimate and necessary to wonder whether life has a meaning; therefore it is legitimate to meet the problem of suicide face to face.
The Myth of Sisyphus (Penguin, 2013 edition; tr. Justin O'Brien) Said c. 1955
Judging whether life is worth living is answering the fundamental question of philosophy
Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy.
The Myth of Sisyphus (Penguin, 2013 edition; tr. Justin O'Brien) Said c. 1942
Hope is the typical act of evasion, and a fatal one
The typical act of eluding, the fatal evasion that constitutes the third theme of this essay, is hope.
The Myth of Sisyphus (Penguin, 2013 edition; tr. Justin O'Brien) Said c. 1942
Show 16 more
Being logical is easy; being logical all the way to the bitter end is almost impossible
It is always easy to be logical. It is almost impossible to be logical to the bitter end.
The Myth of Sisyphus (Penguin, 2013 edition; tr. Justin O'Brien) Said c. 1942
The absurd arises from the clash between human need and the unreasonable silence of the world
The absurd is born of this confrontation between the human need and the unreasonable silence of the world.
The Myth of Sisyphus (Penguin, 2013 edition; tr. Justin O'Brien) Said c. 1942
To live is to keep the absurd alive, and that means above all contemplating it
Living is keeping the absurd alive. Keeping it alive is above all contemplating it.
The Myth of Sisyphus (Penguin, 2013 edition; tr. Justin O'Brien) Said c. 1942
Revolt is one of the only coherent philosophical positions
One of the only coherent philosophical positions is thus revolt.
The Myth of Sisyphus (Penguin, 2013 edition; tr. Justin O'Brien) Said c. 1942
Revolt gives life its value and, sustained across a whole life, restores that life's majesty
That revolt gives life its value. Spread out over the whole length of a life, it restores its majesty to that life.
The Myth of Sisyphus (Penguin, 2013 edition; tr. Justin O'Brien) Said c. 1942
Suicide does not follow from revolt; it is not revolt's logical outcome
It may be thought that suicide follows revolt – but wrongly. For it does not represent the logical outcome of revolt.
The Myth of Sisyphus (Penguin, 2013 edition; tr. Justin O'Brien) Said c. 1942
The absurd makes clear that there is no future
The absurd enlightens me on this point: there is no future.
The Myth of Sisyphus (Penguin, 2013 edition; tr. Justin O'Brien) Said c. 1942
Belief in the absurd amounts to putting the quantity of experiences in place of their quality
Now, faced with this particular concern, belief in the absurd is tantamount to substituting the quantity of experiences for the quality.
The Myth of Sisyphus (Penguin, 2013 edition; tr. Justin O'Brien) Said c. 1942
Where lucidity rules, a scale of values becomes useless
Where lucidity dominates, the scale of values becomes useless.
The Myth of Sisyphus (Penguin, 2013 edition; tr. Justin O'Brien) Said c. 1942
The absurd yields three consequences: revolt, freedom and passion
Thus I draw from the absurd three consequences which are my revolt, my freedom and my passion.
The Myth of Sisyphus (Penguin, 2013 edition; tr. Justin O'Brien) Said c. 1942
Ironic philosophies produce passionate works
After all, ironic philosophies produce passionate works.
The Myth of Sisyphus (Penguin, 2013 edition; tr. Justin O'Brien) Said c. 1942
There is no fate that scorn cannot overcome
There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.
The Myth of Sisyphus (Penguin, 2013 edition; tr. Justin O'Brien) Said c. 1942
Every sun has its shadow, and it is essential to know the night
There is no sun without shadow, and it is essential to know the night.
The Myth of Sisyphus (Penguin, 2013 edition; tr. Justin O'Brien) Said c. 1942
The struggle toward the heights is itself enough to fill a heart; the condemned labourer must be imagined happy
The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.
The Myth of Sisyphus (Penguin, 2013 edition; tr. Justin O'Brien) Said c. 1942
If life is only absurd and freedom bounded by limited fate, what counts is the most living, not the best
If I convince myself that this life has no other aspect than that of the absurd, if I feel that its whole equilibrium depends on that perpetual opposition between my conscious revolt and the darkness in which it struggles, if I admit that my freedom has no meaning except in relation to its limited fate, then I must say that what counts is not the best living but the most living.
The Myth of Sisyphus (Penguin, 2013 edition; tr. Justin O'Brien) Said c. 1942
Suicide, like the leap, is acceptance at its extreme
Suicide, like the leap, is acceptance at its extreme.
The Myth of Sisyphus (Penguin, 2013 edition; tr. Justin O'Brien) Said c. 1942
What is a korrent?
A korrent is a belief a person has stated in their own words: one sentence stating the claim, backed by a quote and a source, kept at korrents.com.
Under a name here, the quoted block is what they actually said. The korrent beneath it is the claim those words support, in korrents' wording — tap it to see the record, its source, and who else holds it.
Nobody here wrote their own korrents. They are compiled from public statements, and a person can change their mind, which is recorded too.
About the English under a post
Some people here publish in a language other than English. Where they do, this site shows a machine translation beneath the post, in this typeface — the site's own, not theirs.
The post itself is never changed, moved or hidden: what is set in the serif above is exactly what the person published, and it is what to quote them on. A translation can be wrong in ways that matter, especially about tone.
Only the post's own words are translated. A quoted post, a linked article and a belief on korrents.com are left in their original language.