Albert Camus Quotes from The Outsider, born November 7, 1913, in Mondovi, Algeria, and died January 4, 1960, was a French philosopher and novelist whose novel The Outsider (also known as The Stranger, 1942) is a seminal work of absurdist literature. The story follows Meursault, an emotionally detached Algerian clerk whose indifference to societal norms leads to a murder and a trial that exposes the absurdity of human judgment. Camus’ spare, haunting prose probes themes of alienation, freedom, and the search for meaning. These 15 quotes, sourced directly from The Outsider/The Stranger (using the Stuart Gilbert translation, 1946, and Matthew Ward translation, 1988, where noted), reflect Meursault’s stark perspective and Camus’ exploration of the absurd.
15 Albert Camus Quotes from The Outsider
- “I didn’t feel much remorse for what I’d done. But I was surprised by how relentless the court was.” (The Outsider, 1942, Ward translation)
- “It was as if that great rush of anger had washed me clean, emptied me of hope, and, gazing up at the dark sky spangled with its signs and stars, I laid myself open for the first time to the gentle indifference of the universe.” (The Outsider, 1942, Gilbert translation)
- “I felt the urge to reassure him that I was like everybody else, just like everybody else. But really there wasn’t much point, and I gave up the idea out of laziness.” (The Outsider, 1942, Ward translation)
- “I said that people never change their lives, that in any case one life was as good as another and that I wasn’t dissatisfied with mine here at all.” (The Outsider, 1942, Gilbert translation)
- “To stay or to go, it amounted to the same thing.” (The Outsider, 1942, Ward translation)
- “The others would have to carry on without me. I wasn’t there anymore.” (The Outsider, 1942, Gilbert translation)
- “I wasn’t thinking of anything, because I was half asleep from the sun beating down on my bare head.” (The Outsider, 1942, Ward translation)
- “I realized that I’d managed to get through another Sunday, that Maman was now buried, that I was going back to work and that, really, nothing had changed.” (The Outsider, 1942, Ward translation)
- “I got up. Raymond gave me a very firm handshake and said that men always understand each other.” (The Outsider, 1942, Gilbert translation)
- “It was the heat and the sun that made me do it.” (The Outsider, 1942, Gilbert translation)
- “I’ve often thought that had I been compelled to live in the trunk of a dead tree, with nothing to do but gaze up at the patch of sky just overhead, I’d have got used to it by degrees.” (The Outsider, 1942, Gilbert translation)
- “For the first time, in that night alive with signs and stars, I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world.” (The Outsider, 1942, Ward translation)
- “I didn’t know what to say to make him understand I wasn’t capable of crying, because it wasn’t in me.” (The Outsider, 1942, Gilbert translation)
- “I couldn’t see any reason to change my life. Looking back on it, I wasn’t unhappy. When I was a student, I had lots of ambitions like that. But when I had to give up my studies I learned very quickly that none of it really mattered.” (The Outsider, 1942, Ward translation)
- “What did other people’s deaths or a mother’s love matter to me; what did his God or the lives people choose or the fate they think they elect matter to me when we’re all elected by the same fate.” (The Outsider, 1942, Ward translation)
Albert Camus’ quotes from The Outsider are a stark, evocative blend of existential indifference and piercing clarity, urging readers to confront the absurdity of life’s expectations. Which one’s got you reflecting on your own moments of detachment? Drop it in the comments and keep his literary legacy alive!
Emma Thompson
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