Barbarism is never temporary. Sufficient allowance is never made for it, and, quite naturally, from art barbarism extends to morals.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Barbarism lasts long and spreads from art to morals if not addressed.
- In plain terms
- Cruelty isn't temporary; it affects culture and ethics.
- What can you take from it?
- Watch how cruelty spreads to ethics.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How does cruelty enter ethics?
- Can civilization recover from barbarism?
Another view
Some barbarisms are isolated and don't spread to morals.
More from Albert Camus
Analysis of rebellion leads at least to the suspicion that, contrary to the postulates of contemporary thought, a human nature does exist, as the Greeks believ…
Permalink to quote #109 Beauty is unbearable, drives us to despair, offering us for a minute the glimpse of an eternity that we should like to stretch out over the whole of time.
Permalink to quote #111 All of us, among the ruins, are preparing a renaissance beyond the limits of nihilism. But few of us know it.
Permalink to quote #108
Related quotes
We'll look back and wonder who were these barbarous people, just like we look back at those who supported bull-baiting
Lord StratfordLord Stratford quote #12 Mais qu'un marchand de chameaux excite une sedition dans sa bourgade; qu'associe a quelques malheureux coracites il leur persuade qu'il s'entretient avec l'ang…
VoltaireVoltaire quote #15 Morals are in all countries the result of legislation and government; they are not African or Asian or European: they are good or bad.
Denis DiderotDenis Diderot quote #70