We always deceive ourselves twice about the people we love - first to their advantage, then to their disadvantage.
Interpretation
We often misinterpret our feelings for loved ones, initially seeing them positively and later negatively.
This quote by Albert Camus highlights the complexities of love and self-deception in relationships. It suggests that when we love someone, we tend to overlook their flaws and idealize them, but over time, our perceptions can shift, leading us to see those same traits as disadvantages. This duality reflects the often tumultuous nature of love, where our perceptions are influenced by our emotions and expectations.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about the illusions of love during a relationship counseling session.
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 didn't hear anybody talking about the plight of a soldier coming back home and what he'd gone through. That was why I wrote about that stuff. If somebody else had done it, I probably wouldn't have touched the subject.
The vulnerability of opening your heart fully and deeply to another is terrifying, but at a point in my 50s, I realized that I had to step up to the plate.
Sex prejudice is so ingrained in our society that many who practice it are simply unaware that they are hurting. It is the last socially acceptable prejudice.
In the quest to be clever, I completely forgot about the people that I love and that love me.
Do you know what people want more than anything? They want to be missed. They want to be missed the day they don't show up. They want to be missed when they're gone.
The trouble is, I can't find a part of myself where you're not important. I write in order to be worth your while and to finance the way I want to live with you. Not the way you want to live. The way I want to live with you. Without you I wouldn't care. I'd eat tinned spaghetti and put on yesterday's clothes. But as it is I change my socks, and make money, and tart up Brodie's unspeakable drivel into speakable drivel so he can be an author too, like me.
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