From the olive-strewn forum, one could see the village down below. Not a sound came from it; wisps of smoke rose in the limpid air. The sea also lay silent, as if breathless beneath the unending shower of cold, glittering light. From the Chenoua, a distant cock crow alone sang the fragile glory of the day. Across the ruins, as far as one could see, there were nothing but pitted stones and absinthe plants, trees and perfect columns in the transparence of the crystal air. It was as if the morning stood still, as if the sun had stopped for an immeasurable moment. In this light and silence, years of night and fury melted slowly away. I listened to an almost forgotten sound within myself, as if my heart had long been stopped and was now gently beginning to beat again. Albert Camus
About This Quote

This is a beautiful piece of writing. The second paragraph gives us a sense of being suspended in time. The last line is the most important because it shows us that even though there may be destruction, people can still remember the glory of what used to be.

Source: Lyrical And Critical Essays

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More Quotes By Albert Camus
  1. And he knew, also, what the old man was thinking as his tears flowed, and he, Rieux, thought it too: that a loveless world is a dead world, and always there comes an hour when one is weary of prisons, of one's work, and of...
  2. Nothing in life is worth, turning your back on, if you love it.
  3. Human relationships always help us to carry on because they always presuppose further developments, a future - and also because we live as if our only task was precisely to have relationships with other people.
  4. What made me run away was doubtless not so much the fear of settling down, but of settling down permanently in something ugly.
  5. Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.
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