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About this quote

What does it mean?
Humans reject nature and beauty, creating artificial tragedies that feel bureaucratic and fake.
In plain terms
We ignore the natural world and create sad stories that feel like office work.
What can you take from it?
Avoid artificiality and reconnect with natural beauty.

Where it applies

  • writing stories
  • art criticism
  • cultural analysis

Putting it to work

  • seek natural settings
  • critique modern art
  • value authenticity

Questions to consider

  • How do you see bureaucracy in modern art?
  • Is beauty often overlooked?

Another view

This view ignores that humans have always shaped nature and created art.

More from Albert Camus

  1. We have exiled beauty; the Greeks took up arms for her.

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  2. Man cannot do without beauty, and this is what our era pretends to want to disregard. It steels itself to attain the absolute and authority; it wants to transf…

    Permalink to quote #3
  3. O light! This is the cry of all the characters of ancient drama brought face to face with their fate. This last resort was ours, too, and I knew it now. In the…

    Permalink to quote #4

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