Quote #176

None among us is authorized to despair of a single man, except after his death, which transforms his life into destiny and then permits a definitive judgment. But pronouncing the definitive judgment before his death, decreeing the closing of accounts when the creditor is still alive, is no man's right. On this limit, at least, whoever judges absolutely condemns himself absolutely.

More from Albert Camus

  1. No human being, even the most passionately loved and passionately loving, is ever in our possession.
  2. Nothing is given to men, and the little they can conquer is paid for with unjust deaths. But man's greatness lies elsewhere. It lies in his…
  3. No great work has ever been based on hatred or contempt... Every great work makes the human face more admirable and richer, and this is its…
  4. Of all kinds of fate the least deceptive is the one that is lived.
  5. Nature is still there, however. She contrasts her calm skies and her reasons with the madness of men. Until the atom too catches fire and h…
  6. Of whom 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, a…
  7. National society can be preserved only by opening it up to a universal perspective.
  8. One can reject all history and yet accept the world of the sea and the stars.

All Albert Camus quotes