Ah, mon cher, for anyone who is alone, without God and without a master, the weight of days is dreadful.
Albert Camus
- Life
- 1913-1960
- Occupations
- writer, philosopher, novelist
- Notable works
- L'homme révolté, A Happy Death, The Fall
Facts: Wikidata (CC0), as of 2026-07-09
A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world.
Albert Camus
A sub-clerk in the post office is the equal of a conqueror if consciousness is common to them.
Albert Camus
But perhaps the great work of art has less importance in itself than in the ordeal it demands of a man and the opportunity it provides him of overcoming his phantoms and approaching a little closer to his naked reality.
Albert Camus
Don't walk in front of me because I may not follow.
Albert Camus
Don’t walk in front of me because I may not follow. Don’t walk behind me because I may not lead. Just walk beside me and be my friend.
Albert Camus
For if there is a sin against life, it consists perhaps not so much in despairing of life as in hoping for another life and in eluding the implacable grandeur of this life.
Albert Camus
Freedom is too heavy to bear, especially when you’re down with a fever, or are distressed, or love nobody.
Albert Camus
Freedom is too heavy to bear, especially when you're down with a fever, or are distressed, or love nobody. The Fall
Albert Camus
God is not needed to create guilt or to punish. Our fellow men suffice, aided by ourselves.
Albert Camus
I had only to wish that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of my execution and that they greet me with cries of hate.
Albert Camus
Integrity has no need of rules.
Albert Camus
In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.
Albert Camus
In the long run, one gets used to anything. After a single day’s experience of the outside world, a man could easily live 100 years in prison. He’d have laid up enough memories never to be bored.
Albert Camus
In the long run, one gets used to anything. After a single day's experience of the outside world, a man could easily live 100 years in prison. He'd have laid up enough memories never to be bored. The Outsider
Albert Camus
I sometimes think of what future historians will say of us. A single sentence will suffice for modern man: he fornicated and read the papers. After that vigorous definition, the subject will be, if I may say so, exhausted.
Albert Camus
Man is the only creature that refuses to be what he is.
Albert Camus
Martyrs, my friend, have to choose between being forgotten, mocked or used. As for being understood - never.
Albert Camus
More and more, when faced with the world of men, the only reaction is one of individualism. Man alone is an end unto himself. Everything one tries to do for the common good ends in failure.
Albert Camus
Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.
Albert Camus
Of who and of what indeed can I say: “I know that!” This heart within me I can feel, and I judge that it exists. This world I can touch, and likewise judge that it exists. There ends all my knowledge and the rest is construction.
Albert Camus
Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present.
Albert Camus
…since the order of the world is shaped by death, mightn’t it be better for God if we refuse to believe in Him and struggle with all out might against death, without raising our eyes toward the heaven where he sits in silence?
Albert Camus
Some cry: “Love me!” Others: “Don’t love me!” But a certain genus, the worst and most unhappy, cries: “Don’t love me and be faithful to me!”
Albert Camus
The absurd is the essential concept and the first truth.
Albert Camus
The evil that is in the world almost always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence if they lack understanding.
Albert Camus
To create is likewise to give a shape to one’s fate. For all these characters, their work defines them at least as much as it is defined by them. The actor taught us this: There is no frontier between being and appearing.
Albert Camus
To create is likewise to give a shape to one's fate. For all these characters, their work defines them at least as much as it is defined by them. The actor taught us this: There is no frontier between being and appearing. The Ephemeral Creation
Albert Camus
We get into the habit of living before acquiring the habit of thinking. In that race which daily hastens us towards death, the body maintains its irreparable lead.
Albert Camus
You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.
Albert Camus