Camus Quote
During the last thirty years, State crimes have been infinitely more numerous than crimes committed by individuals . . . The number of people killed by the State has assumed astronomic proportions, and is infinitely greater than that of private murders. There are fewer and fewer people condemned to death for ordinary crimes and more and more for political offenses.
- Camus, Resistance, Rebellion and Death
Ecclesiastes
Emptiness
Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. What do people gain from all the toil at which they toil under the sun? A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises and the sun goes down, and hurries to the place where it rises. (1:1-5)
All things are wearisome; more than one can express; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, or the ear filled with hearing. What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun. (1:8-9)
I, the Teacher . . . applied my mind to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven; it is an unhappy business that God has given to human beings to be busy with. I saw all the deeds that are done under the sun; and see, all is vanity and a chasing after wind. (1:12-14)
I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had spent in doing it, and again, all was vanity and a chasing after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun. (2:11)
Death
The people of long ago are not remembered, nor will there be any remembrance of people yet to come by those who come after them. (1:11)
The wise have eyes in their head, but fools walk in darkness. Yet I perceived that the same fate befalls all of them. Then I said to myself, "What happens to the fool will happen to me also; why then have I been so very wise?" And I said to myself that this also is vanity. . . . So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me; for all is vanity and a chasing after wind. (2:14-17; cf. 9:2-3)
For the fate of humans and the fate of animals is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and humans have no advantage over the animals; for all is vanity. All go to one place; all are from the dust, and all turn to dust again. (3:19-20)
Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to the skillful; but time and chance govern them all. For no one can anticipate the time of disaster. (9:11)
Injustice
Moreover I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, wickedness was there, and in the place of righteousness, wickedness was there as well. (3:16)
In my vain life I have seen everything; there are righteous people who perish in their righteousness, and there are wicked people who prolong their life in their evil-doing. (7:15)
Complexity
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up . . . (3:1-3)
Surely there is no one on earth so righteous as to do good without ever sinning. (7:20)
[T]hen I saw all the work of God, that no one can find out what is happening under the sun. However much they may toil in seeking, they will not find it out; even though those who are wise claim to know, they cannot find it out. (8:17)
Just as you do not know how the breath comes to the bones in the mother's womb, so you do not know the work of God, who makes everything. (11:5)
Joy
What do mortals get from all the toil and strain with which they toil under the sun? For all their days are full of pain, and their work is a vexation; even at night their minds do not rest. This also is vanity. There is nothing better for mortals than to eat and drink, and find enjoyment in their toil. (2:22-24)
Again, I saw vanity under the sun: the case of solitary individuals, without sons or brothers; yet there is no end to all their toil, and their eyes are never satisfied with riches. "For whom am I toiling," they ask, "and depriving myself of pleasure?" This also is vanity and an unhappy business. (4:7-8)
This is what I have seen to be good: it is fitting to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of the life God gives us; for this is our lot. . . . they will scarcely brood over the days of their lives, because God keeps them occupied with the joy of their hearts. (5:18-20; cf. 3:12-13; 8:15)
A man may beget a hundred children, and live many years; but however many are the days of his years, if he does not enjoy life's good things, or has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he. (6:3)
Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a glad heart. (9:7)
Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun. (11:7)
Rejoice, young man, while you are young, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. (11:9)