Then, already, it had brought to his mind the silence brooding over beds in which he had let men die. There as here it was the same solemn pause, the lull that follows battle; it was the silence of defeat. But the silence now enveloping his dead friend, so dense, so much akin to the nocturnal silence of the streets and of the town set free at last, made Rieux cruelly aware that this defeat was final, the last disastrous battle that ends a war and makes peace itself an ill beyond all remedy. The doctor could not tell if Tarrou had found peace, now that all was over, but for himself he had a feeling that no peace was possible to him henceforth, any more than there can an armistice for a mother bereaved of a son or for a man who buries his friend. . Albert Camus
About This Quote

This is an example of the writing of an excellent author. It shows how he has mastered his craft. Through words he has put together a simile that brings us to the full understanding of the meaning of the sentence. If you are studying or teaching English, you can also use this example to show how one sentence can be made out of many words.

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  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.

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