The absurd hero's refusal to hope becomes his singular ability to live in the present with passion.

I do not want to found anything on the incomprehensible. I want to know whether I can live with what I know and with that alone.

... man has an idea of a better world than this. But better does not mean different, it means unified... Religion or crime, every human endeavor in fact, finally obeys this unreasonabledesire and claims to give life a form it does not have.

The struggle to reach the top is itself enough to fulfill the heart of man. One must believe that Sisyphus is happy.

May heaven protect us, cher monsieur, from being set on a pedestal by our friends!!!

In fact, it comes to this: nobody is capable of really thinking about anyone, even in the worst calamity. For really to think about someone means thinking about that person every minute of the day, without letting one’s thoughts be diverted by anything- by meals, by a fly that settles on one’s cheek, by household duties, or by a sudden itch somewhere. But there are always flies and itches. That’s why life is difficult to live.

We all carry within us places of exile, our crimes, our ravages. Our task is not to unleash them on the world; it is to transform them in ourselves and others.