Albert Camus Quotes on Truth
Albert Camus held that truth must be defended honestly and never enforced, and the quotes gathered here express that conviction. Camus prized intellectual independence: he distanced himself from the fashionable existentialism of his day, judging its conclusions false, and insisted that one does not decide the truth of a thought according to whether it is right-wing or left-wing. He was sharply aware of how truth can be corrupted into a weapon; in The Fall he mocks those who announce this is the truth and add that in a few years the police will arrive to show that they were right. Against the easy certainties of ideology, Camus set a sober recognition that genuine knowledge is hard-won, and that the history of thought is largely a record of its successive regrets and impotences. Drawn from his essays, novels, and correspondence, these passages present truth as something to be sought honestly and never imposed by force.
Quotes
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“Real fulfillment, for the man who allows absolutely free rein to his desires, and who much dominate everything, lies in hatred.”
The Rebel(1951) | Part 2: Metaphysical Rebellion -
“I do not have much liking for the too famous existential philosophy, and, to tell the truth, I think its conclusions false.”
Resistance, Rebellion, and Death(1960) | "Pessimism and Tyranny" -
“One does not decide the truth of a thought according to whether it is right-wing or left-wing.”
Letter to Jean-Paul Sartre , 30 June 1952. As quoted in Paris after the Liberation: 1944-1949 by Antony Beevor and Artemis Cooper . -
“With the exception of professional rationalists, today people despair of true knowledge. If the only significant history of human thought were to be written, it would have to be history of its successive regrets and impotences.”
An Absurd Reasoning | Absurd Walls -
“There is no mystery in humans creation. Will performs this miracle. But at least there is no true creation without a secret.”
Absurd Creation | Kirilov -
“"This is the truth," we say. "You can discuss it as much as you want; we aren't interested. But in a few years there'll be the police who will show you we are right."”
The Fall(1956)