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2023/09/06
2023/11/06
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book,philosophy,society
gemini://gemi.dev/cgi-bin/wp.cgi/view/en?The_Fall_(Camus_novel)
My dear friend, we mustn't give them even the slightest excuse to judge us! Otherwise, we end up in pieces.
What's the solution? You are only excused for happiness and success if you generously agree to share them. But if one is to be happy, one should not worry too much about other people -- which means that there is no way out. Happy and judged or absolved and miserable.
Most of all, don't believe your friends when they ask you to be sincere with them. All they want is for you to sustain them in the good opinion that they have of themselves and provide them with the additional assurance that they take form your promise of sincerity. How could sincerity be a condition of friendship? A liking for the truth at all costs is a passion that spares nothing and that nothing can withstand. It's a vice, sometimes a comfort, or a form of selfishness. So if you find yourself in that situation, don't hesitate: promise to be truthful and lie as best you can. You will satisfy their deep desire and doubly proe your affection for them.
So much so that we rarely confide in those who are better than we are; rather, we avoid their company. Most of the time, on the contrary, we confess to those who are like us and who share our weaknesses. This means that we do not want to correct ourselves or to be improved: for that, first of all, we should have to be judged and found wanting. All we need is to be pitied and encouraged in our course. In short, we would like at the same time to be no longer guilty and not to make the effort to purify ourselves. Not enough cynicism, not enough virtue. We have neither the energy of evil nor that of good.