“ Man does not choose. The absurd and the extra life it involves therefore do not depend on man’s will, but on its contrary, which is death. ”
Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus (1942). copy citation
| Author | Albert Camus |
|---|---|
| Source | The Myth of Sisyphus |
| Topic | death life |
| Date | 1942 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | Translated by Justin O'Brien |
| Weblink | http://www2.hawaii.edu/~freeman/courses/phil360/16.%20Myth%20of%20Sisyph... |
Context
“Thus it is that no depth, no emotion, no passion, and no sacrifice could render equal in the eyes of the absurd man (even if he wished it so) a conscious life of forty years and a lucidity spread over sixty years. [13] Madness and death are his irreparables. Man does not choose. The absurd and the extra life it involves therefore do not depend on man’s will, but on its contrary, which is death. [14] Weighing words carefully, it is altogether a question of luck. One just has to be able to consent to this. There will never be any substitute for twenty years of life and experience.
By what is an odd inconsistency in such an alert race, the Greeks claimed that those who died young were beloved of the gods.”
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