QuoteProject
In the next few years the struggle will not be between utopia and reality, but between different utopias, each trying to impose itself on reality ... we can no longer hope to save everything, but ... we can at least try to save lives, so that some kind of future, if perhaps not the ideal one, will remain possible.
Albert Camus
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote reflects on the conflict of various distinct visions of utopia, emphasizing the importance of pragmatic actions to preserve life and future possibilities.

In this quote, Albert Camus discusses the complex nature of societal visions, suggesting that rather than a binary struggle between an idealized utopia and brutal reality, the real contention is among multiple competing utopias, each striving to assert its own version of the ideal. He acknowledges the limitations of our powers to enact change and suggests that while we cannot save everything, we must focus on the imperative of saving lives to keep future possibilities alive, even if those futures are not perfect or idealized.

Themes

UtopiaRealityStruggleLifeFutureVisions

In practice

Example use cases

This quote could be used in a lecture about political philosophy and the concept of utopias.

More from Albert Camus

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.
Albert CamusRead
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.
Albert CamusRead
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.
Albert CamusRead
Don't wait for the last judgment - it takes place every day.
Albert CamusRead
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.
Albert CamusRead
At times I feel myself overtaken by an immense tenderness for these people around me who live in the same century.
Albert CamusRead

Similar quotes

It may have been a comedy, or it may have been a tragedy. It cost one man his reason, it cost me a blood-letting, and it cost yet another man the penalties of the law. Yet there was certainly an element of comedy. Well, you shall judge for yourselves.
Arthur Conan DoyleRead
I hope I'm worthy in my dying. I hope I can maintain myself - that I wouldn't become pathetic and needy, and the worst part of myself come out in adversity. But I'm not afraid of it. It'd be such a silly thing to do! To ruin the life you have by fearing its ending.
Brendan GleesonRead
The dual substance of Christ - the yearning, so human, so superhuman, of man to attain God. [...] has always been a deep inscrutable mystery to me. [...] My principle anguish and source of all my joys and sorrows from my youth onward has been the incessant, merciless battle between the spirit and the flesh. [...] And my soul is the arena where these two armies have clashed and met.
Nikos KazantzakisRead
She would have liked not to be alive, or to be always asleep.
Gustave FlaubertRead
I love the broad margin to my life.
Henry David ThoreauRead
When one of my Japanese teacups is broken, I imagine that the real cause was not the careless hand of a maid but the anxieties of the figures inhabiting the curves of that porcelain. Their grim decision to commit suicide doesn't shock me: they used the maid as one of us might use a gun.
Fernando PessoaRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.