There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. All the rest - whether or not the world has three dimensions, whether the mind has nine or twelve categories - comes afterward. These are games; one must first answer.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- The most important philosophical question is whether life is worth living; all others are secondary.
- In plain terms
- Deciding if life is worth living is the main philosophical problem.
- What can you take from it?
- Start philosophy by asking if life matters.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Is life worth living?
- What makes life meaningful?
Another view
Other questions can be urgent depending on context.
More from Albert Camus
The absurd is the essential concept and the first truth.
Permalink to quote #36 To two men living the same number of years, the world always provides the same sum of experiences. It is up to us to be conscious of them.
Permalink to quote #38 Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.
Permalink to quote #35
Related quotes
There is not love of life without despair about life.
Albert CamusAlbert Camus quote #9 One does not discover the absurd without being tempted to write a manual of happiness. 'What! - by such narrow ways - ?' There is but one world, however. Happi…
Albert CamusAlbert Camus quote #65 Myth is the nothing that is all.
Fernando PessoaFernando Pessoa quote #2