“ So long as the mind keeps silent in the motionless world of its hopes, everything is reflected and arranged in the unity of its nostalgia. But with its first move this world cracks and tumbles: an infinite number of shimmering fragments is offered to the understanding. ”
Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus (1942). copy citation
| Author | Albert Camus |
|---|---|
| Source | The Myth of Sisyphus |
| Topic | nostalgia unity |
| Date | 1942 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | Translated by Justin O'Brien |
| Weblink | http://www2.hawaii.edu/~freeman/courses/phil360/16.%20Myth%20of%20Sisyph... |
Context
“It is essential to consider as a constant point of reference in this essay the regular hiatus between what we fancy we know and what we really know, practical assent and simulated ignorance which allows us to live with ideas which, if we truly put them to the test, ought to upset our whole life. Faced with this inextricable contradiction of the mind, we shall fully grasp the divorce separating us from our own creations. So long as the mind keeps silent in the motionless world of its hopes, everything is reflected and arranged in the unity of its nostalgia. But with its first move this world cracks and tumbles: an infinite number of shimmering fragments is offered to the understanding. We must despair of ever reconstructing the familiar, calm surface which would give us peace of heart. After so many centuries of inquiries, so many abdications among thinkers, we are well aware that this is true for all our knowledge.”
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