Even before Albert Camus was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, his work was already seen as profoundly important not only in the literary world but also in the realm of philosophy.
Camus was able to effortless switch between novels, plays and essays, while always retaining his unmistakable tone and remarkably astute outlook on life. We've assembled the 20 greatest pieces of wisdom from his works to get you one step closer to that Nobel Prize of your own...
READ ABOUT THE FIRST MAN AND NINE OTHER UNFINISHED NOVELS HERE
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“People hasten to judge in order not to be judged themselves.”
The Fall
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“Man is always prey to his truths. Once he has admitted them, he cannot free himself from them.”
The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays
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“When the soul suffers too much, it develops a taste for misfortune.”
The First Man
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“Since we're all going to die, it's obvious that when and how don't matter.”
The Stranger
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“You know what charm is: a way of getting the answer yes without having asked any clear question.”
The Fall
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“I know that man is capable of great deeds. But if he isn't capable of great emotion, well, he leaves me cold.”
The Plague
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“Seeking what is true is not seeking what is desirable.”
The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays
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“There is not love of life without despair about life.”
The Stranger
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“The truth is that everyone is bored, and devotes himself to cultivating habits.”
The Plague
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“There is scarcely any passion without struggle.”
The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays
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“But sometimes it takes more courage to live than to shoot yourself.”
A Happy Death
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“Believe me, for certain men at least, not taking what one doesn't desire is the hardest thing in the world.”
The Fall
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“Nothing in the world is worth turning one's back on what one loves.”
The Plague
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“Man cannot do without beauty, and this is what our era pretends to want to disregard.”
The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays
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“It is better to burn than to disappear.”
The Stranger
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“I like people who dream or talk to themselves interminably; I like them, for they are double. They are here and elsewhere.”
The Fall
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“It is in the thick of calamity that one gets hardened to the truth - in other words, to silence.”
The Plague
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“One always has exaggerated ideas about what one doesn't know.”
The Stranger
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“There are more things to admire in men then to despise.”
The Plague
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“Remembrance of things past is is just for the rich. For the poor it only marks the faint traces on the path to death.”
The First Man
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(Images: Rex Features)
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