Correspondence Albert Camus Quotes

At the present time, I long only to sleep and to remain silent. I am sick of humanity.

The older I get, the more I find that you can only live with those who free you, who love you with an affection that is as light to bear as it is strong to feel. Today's life is too hard, too bitter, too anemic, for us to undergo new bondages, from whom we love (...]. This is how I am your friend, I love your happiness, your freedom, Your adventure in one word, and I would like to be for you the companion we are sure of, always.

Plus je vieillis et plus je trouve qu’on ne peut vivre qu’avec les êtres qui vous libèrent, qui vous aiment d’une affection aussi légère à porter que forte à éprouver. La vie d’aujourd’hui est trop dure, trop amère, trop anémiante, pour qu’on subisse encore de nouvelles servitudes, venues de qui on aime [...]. C’est ainsi que je suis votre ami, j’aime votre bonheur, votre liberté, votre aventure en un mot, et je voudrais être pour vous le compagnon dont on est sûr, toujours. The older I get, the more I find that you can only live with those who free you, who love you from a lighter affection to bear as strong as you can to experience Today's life is too hard, too bitter, too anemic, for us to undergo new bondages, from whom we love [...]. This is how I am your friend, I love your happiness, your freedom, Your adventure in one word, and I would like to be for you the companion we are sure of, always. ---- Albert Camus à René Char, 17 septembre 1957 (in "Albert Camus - René Char : Correspondance 1946-1959") ---- Albert Camus to René Char, September 17, 1957 (via René Char)

There are some individuals who have too strong a craving, a will, and a nostalgia for happiness ever to reach it. They always retain a bitter and passionate aftertaste, and that’s the best they can hope for.

Et qu'est-ce que je vais devenir si tu ne m'aimes pas comme j'ai besoin que tu m'aimes ?

I am still someone who has been swimming against the current for a long time and who is waiting to find that flow where he will feel carried, where he will regain his breathing and his fresh muscles. I’m waiting for the tide. — Albert Camus to Maria Casarès, Correspondance, August 30, 1948 [#37]

Deux êtres qui s'aiment ont à conquérir leur amour, à construire leur vie et leur sentiment, et cela non seulement contre les circonstances mais aussi contre toutes ces choses en eux qui limitent, mutilent, gênent ou pèsent sur eux.

Even the small satisfaction of writing letters was denied us. It came to this: not only had the town ceased to be in touch with the rest of the world by normal means of communication, but also—according to a second notification—all correspondence was forbidden, to obviate the risk of letters’ carrying infection outside the town.

Un amour, Maria, ça ne se conquiert pas sur le monde mais sur soi-même.

Marx's prophecy is also revolutionary in principle. In that all human reality has its origins in the fruits of production, historical evolution is revolutionary because the economy is revolutionary. At each level of production the economy arouses the antagonisms that destroy, to the profit of a superior level of production, the corresponding society. Capitalism is the last of these stages of production because it produces the conditions in which every antagonism will be resolved and where there will be no more economy. On that day our history will become prehistory. This representation is the same as Hegel's, but in another perspective.

In theory, the word revolution retains the meaning that it has in astronomy. It is a movement that describes a complete circle, that leads from one form of government to another after a complete transition. A change of regulations concerning property without a corresponding change of government is not a revolution, but a reform. There is no kind of economic revolution, whether its methods are violent or pacific, which is not, at the same time, manifestly political. Revolution can already be distinguished, in this way, from rebellion. The warning given to Louis XVI: "No, sire, this is not a rebellion, it is a revolution," accents the essential difference. It means precisely that "it is the absolute certainty of a new form of government." Rebellion is, by nature, limited in scope. It is no more than an incoherent pronouncement. Revolution, on the contrary, originates in the realm of ideas. Specifically, it is the injection of ideas into historical experience, while rebellion is only the movement that leads from individual experience into the realm of ideas.

Les pleurs d'impuisance devant le spectacle trop beau pour être retrouvé. L'étrange est que ce soit un ami - un autre.

Je pense à toi. Et cela monte comme une marée en moi. Je t'aime, avec toute la profondeur de l'être. Je t'attends avec décision et certitude, sûr que nous pouvons être heureux, décidé à t'aider de toutes mes forces et à te donner confiance en toi. Que tu m'aides un peu, très peu, et cela suffira pour que j'aie de quoi soulever les montagnes.

On the basis of the evidence, the only conclusion we can draw from Scheler’s remark is that, thanks to the theory of political freedom, there is, in the very heart of our society, an extension of the conception of the rights of man and a corresponding dissatisfaction caused by the application of this theory of freedom. Actual freedom has not increased in proportion to man’s awareness of it. We can only deduce, from this observation, that rebellion is the act of an educated man who is aware of his rights. But we cannot say that it is only a question of individual rights. Because of the sense of solidarity that we have already pointed out, it would rather seem that what is at stake is humanity’s gradually increasing awareness of itself as it pursues its adventurous course.

You are the starting point of each of my initiatives and the natural outcome of all my impressions, and the ups and downs of my state of mind in every moment of my day coupled with the greater or lesser awareness I take of your existence." (Maria Casarès to Albert Camus, Correspondence, September 13, 1949)

Je viens de lire ta dédicace, mon chéri, et il y a maintenant en moi quelque chose qui tremble.

Verrà il momento in cui nonostante tutti i dolori saremo leggeri, gioiosi e veri.

Et moi, je n'ai jamais été aussi démuni, aussi désarmé. Je t'embrasse, mais avec ces larmes que je ne peux pas verser et qui m'étouffent.

Mais mon opinion aujourd'hui est qu'il est vain de nous affirmer l'un à l'autre notre malheur mutuel. Il n'y a qu'une façon de mettre tout cela au clair, c'est toi devant moi.

came to this: not only had the town ceased to be in touch with the rest of the world by normal means of communication, but also, according to a second notification, all correspondence was forbidden, to obviate the risk of letters carrying infection outside the town.