Albert Camus

I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn't, than live my life as if there isn't and die to find out there is.

Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present.

How can sincerity be a condition of friendship? A taste for truth at any cost is a passion which spares nothing.

Don't walk behind me I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.

Men are never really willing to die except for the sake of freedom: therefore they do not believe in dying completely.

Without culture, and the relative freedom it implies, society, even when perfect, is but a jungle. This is why any authentic creation is a gift to the future.

A free press can, of course, be good or bad, but, most certainly without freedom, the press will never be anything but bad.

Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better.

It is a kind of spiritual snobbery that makes people think they can be happy without money.

Nothing is more despicable than respect based on fear.

To be famous, in fact, one has only to kill one's landlady.

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

When you have really exhausted an experience you always reverence and love it.

You cannot create experience. You must undergo it.

There will be no lasting peace either in the heart of individuals or in social customs until death is outlawed.

We get into the habit of living before acquiring the habit of thinking. In that race which daily hastens us towards death, the body maintains its irreparable lead.

Men are convinced of your arguments, your sincerity, and the seriousness of your efforts only by your death.

For centuries the death penalty, often accompanied by barbarous refinements, has been trying to hold crime in check yet crime persists. Why? Because the instincts that are warring in man are not, as the law claims, constant forces in a state of equilibrium.

Real nobility is based on scorn, courage, and profound indifference.

Those who lack the courage will always find a philosophy to justify it.