Revolution, in order to be creative, cannot do without either a moral or metaphysical rule to balance the insanity of history.

Every stone here sweats with suffering, I know that. I have never looked at them without a feeling of anguish. But deep in my heart I know that the most wretched among you have seen a divine face emerge from their darkness. That is the face you are asked to see.

At times I feel myself overtaken by an immense tenderness for these people around me who live in the same century.

The realization that life is absurd and cannot be an end, but only a beginning. This is a truth nearly all great minds have taken as their starting point. It is not this discovery that is interesting, but theconsequences and rules of action drawn from it.

O light! This the cry of all the characters of ancient drama brought face to face with their fate. This last resort was ours, too, and I knew it now. In the middle of winter I at last discovered that there was in me an invincible summer.

Generally, I like all islands. There, it is easier to rule.

Camus himself described this work as 'an attempt to understand the time I live in'.