"The Plague" Quotes
A small Algerian town is overtaken by a deadly plague, forcing its inhabitants to confront their own mortality and the meaning of existence.
fiction | 308 pages | Published in 1947
Quotes
The evil that is in the world always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence if they lack understanding.
In this respect, our townsfolk were like everybody else, wrapped up in themselves; in other words they were humanists: they disbelieved in pestilences.
I have no idea what's awaiting me, or what will happen when this all ends. For the moment I know this: there are sick people and they need curing.
The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants.
The evil in the world comes almost always from ignorance, and goodwill can cause as much damage as ill-will if it lacks understanding.
The habit of despair is worse than despair itself.
The only way to deal with a world without freedom is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.
There's no question of heroism in all this. It's a matter of common decency. That's an idea which may make some people smile, but the only means of fighting a plague is common decency.
But what does it mean, the plague? It's life, that's all.
Every man has the plague within him; no one, no one on earth is free from it.
