24 Albert Camus Quotes on Power

Albert Camus quotes on power

79. There always comes a time in history when the person who dares to say that 2+2=4 is punished by death. And the issue is not what reward or what punishment will be the outcome of that reasoning. The issue is simply whether or not 2+2=4.

81. The slave begins by demanding justice and ends by wanting to wear a crown. He must dominate in his turn.

86. Every revolutionary ends as an oppressor or a heretic.

96. The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants, and it provides the further advantage of giving the servants of tyranny a good conscience. It would be easy, however, to destroy that good conscience by shouting to them: if you want the happiness of the people, let them speak out and tell what kind of happiness they want and what kind they don't want! But, in truth, the very ones who make use of such alibis know they are lies; they leave to their intellectuals on duty the chore of believing in them and of proving that religion, patriotism, and justice need for their survival the sacrifice of freedom.

105. All executioners are of the same family.

107. All modern revolutions have ended in a reinforcement of the power of the State.

117. Charm is a way of getting the answer 'Yes' without asking a clear question.

118. Conformity is one of the nihilistic temptations of rebellion which dominate a large part of our intellectual history. It demonstrates how the rebel who takes to action is tempted to succumb, if he forgets his origins, to the most absolute conformity. And so it explains the twentieth century.

127. Every ethic based on solitude implies the exercise of power.

135. From the moment that eternal principles are put in doubt simultaneously with formal virtue, and when every value is discredited, reason will start to act without reference to anything but its own successes... All that was God's will henceforth be rendered to Caesar.

140. Historical reasoning is not a type of reasoning that, within the framework of its own functions, can pass judgment on the world. While pretending to judge it, it really tries to determine its course. Essentially a part of events, it directs them and is simultaneously pedagogic and all-conquering.

142. History without a value to transfigure it, is controlled by the law of expediency.

159. In the twentieth century power wears the mask of tragedy.

169. Man is that force which ultimately cancels all tyrants and gods.

171. Messianism, in order to exist, must construct a defense against the victims.

185. Philosophy secularizes the ideal. But tyrants appear who soon secularize the philosophies that give them the right to do so.

186. Politics and the fate of mankind are formed by men without ideals and without greatness. Those who have greatness within them do not go in for politics.

188. Rebellion's demand is unity; historical revolution's demand is totality.

190. Temporal idols demanding an absolute faith tirelessly decree absolute punishments.

193. The Church has been so harsh with heretics only because she deemed that there is no worse enemy than a child who has gone astray. But the record of Gnostic effronteries and the persistence of Manichean currents have contributed more to the construction of orthodox dogma than all the prayers.

214. 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.

221. There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.

226. Those who reject the agony of living and dying wish to dominate.

231. To ensure the adoration of a theorem for any length of time, faith is not enough; a police force is needed as well.