“ When the images of earth cling too tightly to memory, when the call of happiness becomes too insistent, it happens that melancholy rises in man’s heart: this is the rock’s victory, this is the rock itself. The boundless grief is too heavy to bear. ”
Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus (1942). copy citation
| Author | Albert Camus |
|---|---|
| Source | The Myth of Sisyphus |
| Topic | happiness grief |
| Date | 1942 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | Translated by Justin O'Brien |
| Weblink | http://www2.hawaii.edu/~freeman/courses/phil360/16.%20Myth%20of%20Sisyph... |
Context
“* * * If the descent is thus sometimes performed in sorrow, it can also take place in joy. This word is not too much. Again I fancy Sisyphus returning toward his rock, and the sorrow was in the beginning. When the images of earth cling too tightly to memory, when the call of happiness becomes too insistent, it happens that melancholy rises in man’s heart: this is the rock’s victory, this is the rock itself. The boundless grief is too heavy to bear. These are our nights of Gethsemane. But crushing truths perish from being acknowledged. Thus, Œdipus at the outset obeys fate without knowing it. But from the moment he knows, his tragedy begins. Yet at the same moment, blind and desperate, he realizes that the only bond linking him to the world is the cool hand of a girl.”
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