How do you put everyone in the pool, so you have the right to dry yourself in the sun?
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the balance between collective responsibility and individual freedom.
Albert Camus explores the tension between shared experiences within a community and the individual's right to enjoy personal freedom. The metaphor of putting everyone in the pool suggests inclusivity and communal life, while drying oneself in the sun represents seeking personal joy and autonomy. The quote prompts reflection on how we navigate our interconnectedness with others while still pursuing our own happiness.
In practice
In a discussion about balancing personal goals with group projects at work, one might say this quote to emphasize the need for both collective effort and personal rewards.
The Poor Man whom everyone speaks of, the Poor Man whom everyone pities, one of the repulsive Poor from whom charitable souls keep their distance, he has still said nothing. Or, rather, he has spoken through the voice of Victor Hugo, Zola, Richepin. At least, they said so. And these shameful impostures fed their authors. Cruel irony, the Poor Man tormented with hunger feeds those who plead his case.
The certainty of a God giving meaning to life far surpasses in attractiveness the ability to behave badly with impunity. The choice would not be hard to make. But there is no choice and that is where the bitterness comes in. The absurd does not liberate; it binds.
Between history and the eternal I have chosen history because I like certainties. Of it, at least, I am certain, and how can I deny this force crushing me.
Don't wait for the last judgment - it takes place every day.
A single sentence will suffice for modern man. He fornicated and read the papers. After that vigorous definition, the subject will be, if I may say so, exhausted.
At times I feel myself overtaken by an immense tenderness for these people around me who live in the same century.
I regret profoundly that I was not an American and not born in Greenwich Village. It might be dying, and there might be a lot of dirt in the air you breathe, but this is where it's happening.
Hope is the most sensitive part of a poor wretch's soul; whoever raises it only to torment him is behaving like the executioners in Hell who, they say, incessantly renew old wounds and concentrate their attention on that area of it that is already lacerated.
Not long ago I learned from a certain person in considerable detail about the worthlessness of your character. All the same, it is you who have given me strength, you who have put the rainbow of revolution in my breast. It is you who have given an object to my life.
Moreover, I consider that Carthage should be destroyed.
There is a very remarkable inclination in human nature to bestow on external objects the same emotions which it observes in itself, and to find every where those ideas which are most present to it.
...two thirds of all sorrow is homemade and, so far as the universe is concerned, unnecessary.
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