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Albert Camus, forged in the crucible of French Algeria and scarred by the moral ambiguities of World War II, possessed a perspective on change uniquely informed by existential crisis and resistance. His personal history, marked by poverty, illness, and the subsequent collapse of societal structures under Nazi occupation, instilled within him a deep awareness of the precariousness of human existence. This awareness, intertwined with his active participation in the French Resistance and his nuanced understanding of political upheaval, permeated his philosophical work, prompting a relentless exploration of how individuals navigate a world constantly in flux and seemingly devoid of inherent meaning.
"Stupidity has a knack for getting its way; as we should see if we were not always so wrapped up in ourselves."
"Every act of rebellion expresses a nostalgia for innocence."
"There have been as many plagues as wars in history, yet always plagues and wars take people equally by surprise."
"Beauty, no doubt, does not make revolutions. But a day will come when revolutions will have need of beauty."
"The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy."
"In order to exist, man must rebel."
"Man is not entirely guilty — he did not start history; nor is he wholly innocent — he is continuing it."
"He who despairs over an event is a coward, but he who holds hope for the human condition is a fool."
"The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion."
"Everything is permitted... does not mean that nothing is forbidden."
"The evil that is in the world almost always comes of ignorance."
"Seeking what is true is not seeking what is desirable."
"There is a unique beauty in decline, where the end of a cycle bursts with as much color as its beginning."
"Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is."
"Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present."
"My sole obligation in this life is to practice love."
"There is no sun without shadow, and it is essential to know the night."
"I rebel; therefore we exist."
"The absurd is born of this confrontation between the human need and the unreasonable silence of the world."
"Blessed are the hearts that can bend; they shall never be broken."
"A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world."
"In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer."
"To create is to live twice."
"There is a life and there is a death, and there are beauty and melancholy between."
"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower."
"To grow old is to pass from passion to compassion."
"One does not discover the absurd without being tempted to write a manual of happiness."
"The need to be right is the sign of a vulgar mind."
"To truly honor what is to come, you must dedicate everything you have to the immediate moment."
"Without work, all life goes rotten. But when work is soulless, life stifles and dies."
"We turn toward God only to obtain the impossible."
"To be happy, we must not be too concerned with others."
"At any street corner the feeling of absurdity can strike any man in the face."
"Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better."
"We turn toward the silence of the world and find it gentle."
Seeing how Albert Camus approaches Change helps you apply the idea with more precision.
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