Skip to content
quotesby

The triumph of the man who kills or tortures is marred by only one shadow: he is unable to feel that he is innocent. Thus, he must create guilt in his victim so that, in a world that has no direction, universal guilt will authorize no other course of action than the use of force and give its blessing to nothing but success. When the concept of innocence disappears from the mind of the innocent victim himself, the value of power establishes a definitive rule over a world in despair.

Albert Camus#214

PowerViolenceTyrannyInnocenceGuiltMoral

About this quote

What does it mean?
Tyrants lose moral authority because they cannot feel innocent, so they force guilt on victims to justify violence.
In plain terms
Killers feel guilty so they blame victims to make violence seem right.
What can you take from it?
Power seeks to corrupt innocence to justify itself.

Where it applies

  • authoritarian states
  • conflict zones
  • judicial systems

Putting it to work

  • protect innocent voices
  • expose propaganda
  • support truth

Questions to consider

  • Who holds power in a world without innocence?
  • How is guilt weaponized?

Another view

Not all violence comes from tyrants; some is defensive or accidental.

More from Albert Camus

  1. The rule of our action, the secret of our resistance can be easily stated: everything that humiliates labor also humiliates the intelligence, and vice versa. A…

    Permalink to quote #213
  2. The unbeliever cannot keep from thinking that men who have set at the center of their faith the staggering victim of a judicial error ought at least to hesitat…

    Permalink to quote #215
  3. The real universe which, by its radiance, calls forth bodies and statues receives from them at the same time a second light that determines the light from the …

    Permalink to quote #212

Related quotes

  1. The more innocent they are, the more they deserve to be shot.

    Bertolt BrechtBertolt Brecht quote #13
  2. He'll always be innocent, you can't blame the innocent, they are always guiltless. All you can do is control them or eliminate them. Innocence is a kind of ins…

    Graham GreeneGraham Greene quote #47
  3. The Government of the absolute majority instead of the Government of the people is but the Government of the strongest interests; and when not efficiently chec…

    John C. CalhounJohn C. Calhoun quote #1