Albert Camus quotes
1913 – 1960 · 20th century (France / Algeria) · Novelist, essayist, playwright and journalist
About Albert Camus
Born in Mondovi (French Algeria) in 1913, Camus wrote novels, essays and plays that probe how to live without transcendent meaning. Writing through the interwar period, WWII and the Resistance, he defended an ethic of lucid revolt and human dignity in the face of the absurd.
Works: The Stranger; The Myth of Sisyphus; The Plague; Caligula
Quotes
“One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”
Source: The Myth of Sisyphus, conclusion (1942) · Check the source
Verified attributionWhat we know
- What is documented
- The sentence closes The Myth of Sisyphus and is presented as the essay’s decisive final formulation; the essay was published in 1942.
- What remains uncertain
- Some commentators note a similar line was earlier attributed to Kuki Shūzō, but the famous formulation and its development belong to Camus.
Camus reframes punishment as a stance: Sisyphus isn’t happy because his task gains external meaning, but because lucid acceptance and defiant struggle turn the effort into dignity. The essay’s final line encapsulates Camus’s claim that revolt can produce a tragic, self-made happiness.