How hard it is, how bitter it is to become a man!
Interpretation
The quote reflects the struggles and challenges of growing up and taking on adult responsibilities.
Albert Camus emphasizes the difficult transition into adulthood, highlighting the emotional and psychological burdens that come with assuming maturity. This bittersweet process is often marked by the loss of innocence and the weight of social expectations, revealing the profound struggles that define what it means to be human.
In practice
In a graduation speech to inspire young adults stepping into their futures.
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.
In general there is something puzzling about the fact that the most renowned figures in chess - Morphy, Pillsbury, Capablanca and Fischer - were born in America.
Memory that yearns to join the centre, a limb remembering the body from which it has been severed, like those bamboo thighs of the god.
I like some animals more than some people, some people more than some animals.
Nothing leads to good that is not natural.
Every rebellion against suffering is fed by the subversive power of remembered suffering.
The Few assume to be the deputies, but they are often only the despoilers of the Many.
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