Quote #129

For men of today there is an inner way, which I know well from having taken it in both directions, leading from the spiritual hilltops to the capitals of crime. And doubtless one can always rest, fall asleep on the hilltop or board with crime. But if one forgoes a part of what is, one must forgo being oneself; one must forgo living or loving otherwise than by proxy. There is thus a will to live without rejecting anything of life, which is the virtue I honor most in this world.

More from Albert Camus

  1. For capital punishment to be really intimidating, human nature would have to be different; it would have to be as stable and serene as the …
  2. For some time the entire effort of our philosophers has aimed solely at replacing the notion of human nature with that of situation, and re…
  3. Every ethic based on solitude implies the exercise of power.
  4. For twenty centuries the sum total of evil has not diminished in the world.
  5. Every act of creation, by its mere existence, denies the world of master and slave. The appalling society of tyrants and slaves in which we…
  6. From my first articles to my latest book I have written so much, and perhaps too much, only because I cannot keep from being drawn toward e…
  7. Every achievement is a servitude. It drives us to a higher achievement.
  8. From the evening breeze to this hand on my shoulder, everything has its truth. Consciousness illuminates it by paying attention to it.

All Albert Camus quotes