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

I enjoyed my own nature to the fullest, and we all know there lies happiness, although, to soothe one another mutually, we occasionally pretend to condemn such joys as selfishness.

There are plagues, and there are victims, and it's the duty of good men not to join forces with the plagues.

Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth.

I don’t know whether this world has a meaning that transcends it. But I know that I cannot know that meaning and that it is impossible for me just now to know it.

We are not certain, we are never certain.

This very heart which is mine will forever remain indefinable to me. Between the certainty I have of my existence and the content I try to give to that assurance, the gap will never be filled. Forever I shall be a stranger to myself.