Albert Camus — Quote from The Myth of Sisyphus
“Beginning to think is beginning to be undermined. Society has but little connection with such beginnings. The worm is in man's heart.”
The Myth of Sisyphus (1942)
Concepts: alienation, conformity, meaning
Resonant Quotes
- “Every existing thing is born without reason, prolongs itself out of weakness ...” — Jean-Paul Sartre, Nausea Both reveal how philosophical awakening unveils existence's fundamental contingency, with Camus's 'worm' metaphor cap...
- “The most common form of despair is not being who you are.” — Søren Kierkegaard, The Sickness Unto Death Both diagnose how authentic self-awareness creates profound alienation from conventional social existence, revealing ...
- “Ideology is a specious way of relating to the world. It offers human beings t...” — Václav Havel, The Power of the Powerless Both reveal how systems of false comfort—whether societal conformity or ideological identity—protect us from the corr...
- “If I am what I have and if what I have is lost, who then am I?” — Erich Fromm, To Have or to Be? Both reveal how supposedly foundational structures—social belonging for Camus, possessive identity for Fromm—prove il...
- “A comfortable, smooth, reasonable, democratic unfreedom prevails in advanced ...” — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man Both identify how social systems suppress genuine critical consciousness, though Camus locates the threat in thinking...
- “The people recognize themselves in their commodities; they find their soul in...” — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man Camus's 'worm in man's heart' finds its social expression in Marcuse's commodity-soul identification, both describing...
- “The so-called consumer society and the politics of corporate capitalism have ...” — Herbert Marcuse, An Essay on Liberation The 'worm' Camus identifies becomes Marcuse's 'second nature'—both describe how the capacity for authentic thinking i...
- “The tragedy of modern man is not that he knows less and less about the meanin...” — Václav Havel, Letters to Olga Camus's 'worm in man's heart' finds its fulfillment in Havel's observation that we've learned to live comfortably wit...