Albert Camus — Quote from The Myth of Sisyphus
“There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy.”
The Myth of Sisyphus (1942)
Concepts: absurd, meaning, authenticity
Resonant Quotes
- “Every existing thing is born without reason, prolongs itself out of weakness ...” — Jean-Paul Sartre, Nausea Sartre's description of existence as fundamentally contingent and meaningless provides the precise existential backdr...
- “What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your lonelies...” — Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science Nietzsche's eternal recurrence serves as the ultimate test for Camus's fundamental question—if you must live this exa...
- “Existence precedes essence. Man first of all exists, encounters himself, surg...” — Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism Is a Humanism Camus's fundamental question of whether life is worth living directly connects to Sartre's insight that we must creat...
- “If God does not exist, everything is permitted.” — Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov Dostoevsky's observation about the moral consequences of God's absence creates the nihilistic condition that makes Ca...
- “Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.” — Søren Kierkegaard, The Concept of Anxiety Kierkegaard's anxiety as the vertigo of confronting infinite possibility provides the experiential foundation for the...
- “The most common form of despair is not being who you are.” — Søren Kierkegaard, The Sickness Unto Death Kierkegaard's despair of not being oneself reveals the existential inauthenticity that makes life feel unworthy of li...
- “What I really need is to get clear about what I must do, not what I must know...” — Søren Kierkegaard, Journals Both philosophers prioritize existential action over abstract knowledge, with Camus's fundamental question of living ...
- “My formula for greatness in a human being is amor fati: that one wants nothin...” — Friedrich Nietzsche, Ecce Homo Amor fati represents one possible answer to Camus's fundamental question—affirming life's worth through total accepta...