"By definition, a government has no conscience. Sometimes it has a policy, but nothing more."

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More quotes from: Albert Camus

• "A free press can, of course, be good or bad, but, most certainly without freedom, ..."
• "A guilty conscience needs to confess. A work of art is a confession. "
• "A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world. "
• "A man's work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of ..."
• "A sub-clerk in the post-office is the equal of a conqueror if consciousness is common ..."
• "Abstract Art: A product of the untalented, sold by the unprincipled to the utterly bewildered. "
• "After all manner of professors have done their best for us, the place we are ..."
• "After all, every murderer when he kills runs the risk of the most dreadful of ..."
• "Ah, mon cher, for anyone who is alone, without God and without a master, the ..."
• "Alas, after a certain age every man is responsible for his face. "
• "All great deeds and all great thoughts have a ridiculous beginning. Great works are often ..."
• "All modern revolutions have ended in a reinforcement of the power of the State. "
• "An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself. "
• "As a remedy to life in society I would suggest the big city. Nowadays, it ..."
• "At 30 a man should know himself like the palm of his hand, know the ..."
• "At any street corner the feeling of absurdity can strike any man in the face. "
• "Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower. "
• "Beauty is unbearable, drives us to despair, offering us for a minute the glimpse of ..."
• "But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he ..."
• "Charm is a way of getting the answer yes without asking a clear question. "
• "Culture: the cry of men in face of their destiny. "
• "Don't believe your friends when they ask you to be honest with them. All they ..."
• "Don't wait for the last judgment - it takes place every day. "
• "Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I ..."
• "Every revolutionary ends up either by becoming an oppressor or a heretic. "
• "For centuries the death penalty, often accompanied by barbarous refinements, has been trying to hold ..."
• "For if there is a sin against life, it consists perhaps not so much in ..."
• "Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better. "
• "How can sincerity be a condition of friendship? A taste for truth at any cost ..."
• "I shall tell you a great secret, my friend. Do not wait for the last ..."
• "I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to ..."
• "If there is sin against life, it consists... in hoping for another life and in ..."
• "In order to exist just once in the world, it is necessary never again to ..."
• "In our wildest aberrations we dream of an equilibrium we have left behind and which ..."

• "In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible ..."
• "Integrity has no need of rules. "
• "It is a kind of spiritual snobbery that makes people think they can be happy ..."
• "It is normal to give away a little of one's life in order not to ..."
• "It's a kind of spiritual snobbery that makes people think they can be happy without ..."
• "Just as all thought, and primarily that of non-signification, signifies something, so there is no ..."
• "Man is an idea, and a precious small idea once he turns his back on ..."
• "Man is the only creature that refuses to be what he is. "
• "Man wants to live, but it is useless to hope that this desire will dictate ..."
• "Martyrs, my friend, have to choose between being forgotten, mocked or used. As for being ..."
• "Men are convinced of your arguments, your sincerity, and the seriousness of your efforts only ..."
• "Men are never really willing to die except for the sake of freedom: therefore they ..."
• "Methods of thought which claim to give the lead to our world in the name ..."
• "Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal. "
• "One leader, one people, signifies one master and millions of slaves. "
• "Only a philosophy of eternity, in the world today, could justify non-violence. "
• "Our civilization survives in the complacency of cowardly or malignant minds - a sacrifice to ..."
• "Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present. "
• "Real nobility is based on scorn, courage, and profound indifference. "
• "Retaliation is related to nature and instinct, not to law. Law, by definition, cannot obey ..."
• "Stupidity has a knack of getting its way. "
• "That must be wonderful; I have no idea of what it means. "
• "The absurd is the essential concept and the first truth. "
• "The desire for possession is insatiable, to such a point that it can survive even ..."
• "The evil that is in the world almost always comes of ignorance, and good intentions ..."
• "The gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a ..."
• "The modern mind is in complete disarray. Knowledge has stretched itself to the point where ..."
• "The most eloquent eulogy of capitalism was made by its greatest enemy. Marx is only ..."
• "The myth of unlimited production brings war in its train as inevitably as clouds announce ..."
• "The only real progress lies in learning to be wrong all alone. "
• "The principles which men give to themselves end by overwhelming their noblest intentions. "
• "The real passion of the twentieth century is servitude. "
• "The society based on production is only productive, not creative. "

• "The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must ..."
• "The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants. "
• "The world is never quiet, even its silence eternally resounds with the same notes, in ..."
• "There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide. "
• "There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn. "
• "There will be no lasting peace either in the heart of individuals or in social ..."
• "Those who weep for the happy periods which they encounter in history acknowledge what they ..."
• "Those who write clearly have readers, those who write obscurely have commentators. "
• "To abandon oneself to principles is really to die - and to die for an ..."
• "To assert in any case that a man must be absolutely cut off from society ..."
• "To be happy we must not be too concerned with others. "
• "To correct a natural indifference I was placed half-way between misery and the sun. Misery ..."
• "To insure the adoration of a theorem for any length of time, faith is not ..."
• "To know oneself, one should assert oneself. "
• "Too many have dispensed with generosity in order to practice charity. "
• "Truly fertile Music, the only kind that will move us, that we shall truly appreciate, ..."
• "Truth, like light, blinds. Falsehood, on the contrary, is a beautiful twilight that enhances every ..."
• "Virtue cannot separate itself from reality without becoming a principle of evil. "
• "We are all special cases. "
• "We call first truths those we discover after all the others. "
• "We continue to shape our personality all our life. If we knew ourselves perfectly, we ..."
• "We get into the habit of living before acquiring the habit of thinking. In that ..."
• "We used to wonder where war lived, what it was that made it so vile. ..."
• "What the world requires of the Christians is that they should continue to be Christians. "
• "When you have really exhausted an experience you always reverence and love it. "
• "Without culture, and the relative freedom it implies, society, even when perfect, is but a ..."
• "Without freedom, no art; art lives only on the restraints it imposes on itself, and ..."
• "Without work, all life goes rotten. But when work is soulless, life stifles and dies. "
• "You are forgiven for your happiness and your successes only if you generously consent to ..."
• "You cannot create experience. You must undergo it. "
• "You know what charm is: a way of getting the answer 'yes' without having asked ..."
• "You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. ..."
• "Your successes and happiness are forgiven you only if you generously consent to share them. "