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.
Interpretation
Camus critiques the superficiality of modern life, suggesting it is limited to basic, uninspired routines.
In this quote, Albert Camus reflects on the simplicity and perhaps emptiness of the modern human experience, encapsulating it in a single, dismissive sentence that suggests our existence revolves around basic physical desires and passive consumption of information, which leaves little room for deeper meaning or exploration. It underscores a sense of exhaustion with the limitations of contemporary life, provoking thought about the importance of substance and engagement beyond mere survival and routine.
In practice
This quote could be used in a discussion about the meaning of life in a philosophy class.
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.
At times I feel myself overtaken by an immense tenderness for these people around me who live in the same century.
More and more, revolution has found itself delivered into the hands of its bureaucrats and doctrinaires on the one hand, and to the enfeebled and bewildered masses on the other.
But I'm not a saint yet. I'm an alcoholic. I'm a drug addict. I'm homosexual. I'm a genius.
Freedom from labor itself is not new; it once belonged among the most firmly established privileges of the few. In this instance, it seems as though scientific progress and technical developments had been only taken advantage of to achieve something about which all former ages dreamed but which none had been able to realize.
Experience, already reduced to a group of impressions, is ringed round for each one of us by that thick wall of personality through which no real voice has ever pierced on its way to us, or from us to that which we can only conjecture to be without.
As individuals, people are inherently good. I have a somewhat more pessimistic view of people in groups. And I remain extremely concerned when I see what's happening in our country, which is in many ways the luckiest place in the world. We don't seem to be excited about making our country a better place for our kids.
A peace that depends on fear is nothing but a suppressed war.
I don't think you should have to try to be nice, I think most people are nice. I think being cheerful and nice is just a politeness.
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