korrents
Albert Camus

What Albert Camus thinks about happiness

@albert-camus · 19 positions · 0 changes of mind

French writer and philosopher (1913 to 1960), born in Algeria, author of The Stranger, The Plague and The Myth of Sisyphus, and winner of the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Everything they publish, on ppll ↗

Albert Camus did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

6 dated positions, c. 1942 to c. 1955, in their own words. Our reading of what Albert Camus has said — not written or endorsed by them.

  1. Our readingIt is legitimate and necessary to ask whether life has meaning, and so to face suicide squarely

    Their wordsThe fundamental subject of The Myth of Sisyphus is this: it is legitimate and necessary to wonder whether life has a meaning; therefore it is legitimate to meet the problem of suicide face to face.

    ↗The Myth of Sisyphus (Penguin, 2013 edition; tr. Justin O'Brien)books.google.com All 19 from this book

  3. Our readingRevolt gives life its value and, sustained across a whole life, restores that life's majesty

    Their wordsThat revolt gives life its value. Spread out over the whole length of a life, it restores its majesty to that life.

    ↗The Myth of Sisyphus (Penguin, 2013 edition; tr. Justin O'Brien)books.google.com All 19 from this book

  5. Our readingTo live is to keep the absurd alive, and that means above all contemplating it

    Their wordsLiving is keeping the absurd alive. Keeping it alive is above all contemplating it.

    ↗The Myth of Sisyphus (Penguin, 2013 edition; tr. Justin O'Brien)books.google.com All 19 from this book

  7. Our readingBelief in the absurd amounts to putting the quantity of experiences in place of their quality

    Their wordsNow, faced with this particular concern, belief in the absurd is tantamount to substituting the quantity of experiences for the quality.

    ↗The Myth of Sisyphus (Penguin, 2013 edition; tr. Justin O'Brien)books.google.com All 19 from this book

  9. Our readingIf life is only absurd and freedom bounded by limited fate, what counts is the most living, not the best

    Their wordsIf I convince myself that this life has no other aspect than that of the absurd, if I feel that its whole equilibrium depends on that perpetual opposition between my conscious revolt and the darkness in which it struggles, if I admit that my freedom has no meaning except in relation to its limited fate, then I must say that what counts is not the best living but the most living.

    ↗The Myth of Sisyphus (Penguin, 2013 edition; tr. Justin O'Brien)books.google.com All 19 from this book

  11. Our readingThe struggle toward the heights is itself enough to fill a heart; the condemned labourer must be imagined happy

    Their wordsThe struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.

    ↗The Myth of Sisyphus (Penguin, 2013 edition; tr. Justin O'Brien)books.google.com All 19 from this book