Quote #114

But I have been sought out, as each individual has been sought out. Artists of the past could at least keep silent in the face of tyranny. The tyrannies of today are improved; they no longer admit of silence or neutrality. One has to take a stand, be either for or against. Well, in that case, I am against.

More from Albert Camus

  1. Being aware of one's life, one's revolt, one's freedom, and to the maximum, is living, and to the maximum.
  2. But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads?
  3. Being able to remain on that dizzying crest - that is integrity and the rest is subterfuge.
  4. By what right, moreover, could a Christian or a Marxist accuse me, for example, of pessimism? I was not the one to invent the misery of the…
  5. 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…
  6. Charm is a way of getting the answer 'Yes' without asking a clear question.
  7. Barbarism is never temporary. Sufficient allowance is never made for it, and, quite naturally, from art barbarism extends to morals.
  8. Conformity is one of the nihilistic temptations of rebellion which dominate a large part of our intellectual history. It demonstrates how t…

All Albert Camus quotes