Albert Camus Quotes

Was there ever any domination which did not appear natural to those who possessed it?

If there is a State, then there is domination, and in turn, there is slavery.

The natural course of power is to make the many slaves to the few.

Every organism, every human being, must conquer or serve.

It only stands to reason that where there's sacrifice, there's someone collecting the sacrificial offerings. Where there's service, there is someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice is speaking of slaves and masters, and intends to be the master.

Hierarchy is is much reviled in the present day.

Their authority over their slaves renders them vain and imperious.

The people who exercise the power are not always the same people over whom it is exercised.

Whether the institution to be defended is slavery, political absolutism, or the absolutism of the head of a family, we are always expected to judge of it from its best instances; and we are presented with pictures of loving exercise of authority on one side, loving submission to it on the other

How many, even of the better sort, would choose to be slaves to those above them, provided they might exercise an arbitrary and tyrannical rule over all below them?

Power always has a direction. It is always downward, towards the weak but power is often confused with what is right

Man is more disposed to domination than freedom; and a structure of dominion not only gladdens the eye of the master who rears and protects it, but even its servants are uplifted by the thought that they are members of a whole, which rises high above the life and strength of single generations.

Good masters generally have bad slaves, and bad slaves have good masters.

It is one thing to own a woman, and it is another to have her within the bonds of an excellent mastery.

If an individual is born with the obligation to obey, who is born with the right to command?

The man who gives me employment, which I must have or suffer, that man is my master, let me call him what I will.

Free election of masters does not abolish the masters or the slaves.

What we really need to be understanding is that all of these things matter and they all stem from the fact that certain people live with power and authority and they want to maintain it.

Shakespeare reveals human nature brilliantly: he shines a light on our instinctive desire to dominate each other.

One of the very basic ideas of Post-Modernism is rejection of arbitrary power structures. Different people are sensitive to different kinds of power structures.

Before passing different laws for different people, I'd relinquish myself unto you as your slave.

Some people are by nature slaves and will always be so.

There is no such thing as liberty. You only change one sort of domination for another. All we can do is to choose our master.

Every man who repeats the dogma of Mill that one country is no fit to rule another country must admit that one class is not fit to rule another class.

Any society based on domination supports and condones violence.