“The gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of its own weight. They had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor.”

French philosopher, writer, and political activist

Albert Camus was a French philosopher, writer, and political activist. He is remembered for work that helped define twentieth-century French thought, and he received the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44. His books include The Stranger, The Plague, The Myth of Sisyphus, The Fall, and The Rebel. His writing and public work are closely associated with questions of absurdity, moral choice, and political commitment.