No longer were there individual destinies; only a collective destiny, made of plague and emotions shared by all.

Virtue cannot separate itself from reality without becoming a principle of evil.

After a short silence the doctor raised himself a little in his chair and asked if Tarrou had an idea of the path to follow for attaining peace. "Yes, he replied. "The path of sympathy.

When love ceases to be tragic it is something else and the individual again throws himself in search of tragedy.

A man devoid of hope and conscious of being so has ceased to belong to the future.

... there are two types of happiness and I have chosen that of the murderers. For I am happy. There was a time when I thought I had reached the limit of distress. Beyond that limit, there is a sterile and magnificent happiness.

I would rather not have upset him, but I couldn't see any reason to change my life. Looking back on it, I wasn't unhappy. When I was a student, I had lots of ambitions like that. But when I had to give up my studies I learned very quickly that none of it really mattered.