They knew now that if there is one thing one can always yearn for, and sometimes attain, it is human love.
Interpretation
Human love is a deep desire that people always seek and can sometimes achieve.
In this quote, Albert Camus reflects on the fundamental human longing for love, suggesting that it is a constant drive within individuals. He emphasizes that while this yearning is universal, attaining true and profound love is not guaranteed, making its pursuit both a noble aspiration and a complex challenge.
In practice
In a speech about love and relationships, one might quote Camus to illustrate the importance of seeking genuine connections.
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.
Forgive yourself and welcome love back into your life.
Any kind of novelty or excitement drives up dopamine in the brain, and dopamine is associated with romantic love.
Love from its very nature must be transitory. To seek for a secret that would render it constant would be as wild a search as for the philosopher’s stone or the grand panacea: and the discovery would be equally useless, or rather pernicious to mankind. The most holy band of society is friendship.
If proud Americans can be who they are and boldly stand at the altar with who they love then surely, surely we can give everyone in this country a fair chance at that great American Dream.
Romances I ne'er read like those I have seen.
She stands and moves within the invisible pentacle of her own virginity. She is an unbroken egg: she is a sealed vessel; she has inside her a magic space the entrance to which is shut tight with a plug of membrane; she is a closed system; she does not know how to shiver.
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