What Albert Camus Actually Said About Action
All 3 Albert Camus passages on action, in full — what each one claims, what holds them together, and who argues the other way.
Albert Camus returns to action three times in thinkr's library — more often than to almost anything else. French-Algerian novelist and philosopher of the absurd. The Myth of Sisyphus asks how to live well in a universe without inherent meaning.
What follows is every one of those passages, in full, with what each is actually claiming. The language is of its period, but the question underneath is not: what is action for, and what does it ask of you?
Every Albert Camus passage on action
“Perhaps we cannot prevent this world from being a world in which children are tortured. But we can reduce the number of tortured children. And if you don't help us, who else in the world can help us do this?”
“I hope the dogs don't bark tonight. I always think it's mine.”
“I do not want to found anything on the incomprehensible. I want to know whether I can live with what I know and with that alone.”
What holds these together
Read in sequence rather than one at a time, the passages stop being separate aphorisms. Albert Camus is not offering three opinions about action; the lines are facets of one position, and the repetition is the argument. The shortest of them — “I hope the dogs don't bark tonight. I always think it's mine” — is the version you can carry, and the longer ones are what it unpacks into.
Albert Camus applied to a real decision
Quotation is the easy part. The harder test is what the position actually does when it meets a situation where every option costs something. thinkr puts two such cases to Albert Camus.
You can choose the easier year or the harder, better one.
Argued as existential challenge: You are treating growth as a responsibility, not a mood. The risk is worshiping difficulty for its own sake.
You are good at something you no longer love.
Argued as self-overcoming: You are refusing to be owned by what once made you impressive. The danger is throwing away discipline because boredom feels profound.
Work through these yourself
- You can choose the easier year or the harder, better one. — argued from existential challenge and several competing positions
- You are good at something you no longer love. — argued from self-overcoming and several competing positions
Who disagrees
Plato, Seneca, Mahatma Gandhi and Lao Tzu all address action too, and they do not converge. Reading Albert Camus alone gives you a coherent position; reading Albert Camus against Plato shows you what the position is actually choosing against.