The need to be right is the sign of a vulgar mind.
Interpretation
Desiring to always be correct indicates a lack of depth in one's thinking.
Albert Camus suggests that an obsession with being right reveals a shallow and unrefined intellect. This desire to always prove oneself correct can stem from insecurity and a failure to engage with more profound thoughts or discussions, highlighting a certain vulgarity in such a mindset.
In practice
In a debate about opinions, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of open-mindedness over being argumentative.
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.
This city is dying of rabies. Is the best I can do to wipe random flecks of foam from its lips?
But it is the bane of psychology to suppose that where results are similar, processes must be the same. Psychologists are too apt to reason as geometers would, if the latter were to say that the diameter of a circle is the same thing as its semi-circumference, because, forsooth, they terminate in the same two points.
Dear Sir: Regarding your article 'What's Wrong with the World?' I am. Yours truly.
People must not be forced to adopt me as their favourite author, even for their own good.
There is very little moral mixture in the 'Antislavery' feeling of this country. A great deal is abstract philanthropy; part is hatred of slaveholders; a great part is jealousy for white labor, very little is consciousness of wrong done and the wish to right it.
Day by day, we are becoming what we shall be eternally. The spirit who convicts us is also the spirit who consoles.
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