Albert Camus
1913 – 1960
About Albert Camus
Albert Camus (1913–1960) was a French-Algerian novelist, playwright, essayist, and philosopher who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957. Born in poverty in colonial Algeria to a French father who died in World War I before Camus could know him, he was raised by an illiterate mother in Algiers. His major works — The Stranger (1942), The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), The Plague (1947), and The Rebel (1951) — articulate his philosophy of the Absurd: the confrontation between human desire for meaning and the universe's silence.
He died in a car accident at 46, at the height of his powers.
“Blessed are the hearts that can bend; they shall never be broken.”
Quick Facts
- Born
- 1913
- Died
- 1960
- Lifespan
- 47 years
- Domain
- inspiration
- Quotes
- 5 collected
- Key Themes
- FlexibilityResilienceHappinessFreedomPerspective
Learn More
Wikipedia — Albert CamusAlbert Camus's Famous Quotes
5 quotes
“Blessed are the hearts that can bend; they shall never be broken.”
— Widely attributed to Camus; exact source unverified in his documented works
“In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.”
— "Return to Tipasa" — collected in Summer (L'Été, 1954)
“You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.”
— Notebooks 1935–1942 (Carnets, published 1962)
“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”
— Widely attributed to Camus; not conclusively traced to a specific primary source — consistent with themes in The Myth of Sisyphus (1942)
“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.”
— Widely attributed to Camus — consistent with his lyrical essays; possibly from American Journals (1978)
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Frequently Asked Questions
Albert Camus (1913–1960) was a French-Algerian novelist, playwright, essayist, and philosopher who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957. Born in poverty in colonial Algeria to a French father who died in World War I before Camus could know him, he was raised by an illiterate mother in Algiers. His major works — The Stranger (1942), The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), The Plague (1947), and The Rebel (1951) — articulate his philosophy of the Absurd: the confrontation between human desire for meaning and the universe's silence. He died in a car accident at 46, at the height of his powers. The Nobel committee praised him for illuminating "the problems of the human conscience in our times." Albert Camus lived 1913 – 1960.