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.
Interpretation
Camus critiques the superficiality of modern life, suggesting it is limited to basic, uninspired routines.
In this quote, Albert Camus reflects on the simplicity and perhaps emptiness of the modern human experience, encapsulating it in a single, dismissive sentence that suggests our existence revolves around basic physical desires and passive consumption of information, which leaves little room for deeper meaning or exploration. It underscores a sense of exhaustion with the limitations of contemporary life, provoking thought about the importance of substance and engagement beyond mere survival and routine.
In practice
This quote could be used in a discussion about the meaning of life in a philosophy class.
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.
At times I feel myself overtaken by an immense tenderness for these people around me who live in the same century.
More and more, revolution has found itself delivered into the hands of its bureaucrats and doctrinaires on the one hand, and to the enfeebled and bewildered masses on the other.
Our greatest pretenses are built up not to hide the evil and the ugly in us, but our emptiness. The hardest thing to hide is something that is not there.
Because the question for me was always whether that shape we see in our lives was there from the beginning or whether these random events are only called a pattern after the fact. Because otherwise we are nothing.
When Satan makes impure verses, Allah sends a divine tune to cleanse them.
I feel closer to my country than ever. There is no longer a feeling of lonesome isolation. Instead-peace. I return without fearing prejudice that once bothered me . . . for I know that people practice cruel bigotry in their ignorance, not maliciously
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
People are, if anything, more touchy about being thought silly than they are about being thought unjust.
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