Quotation
Last reviewed:
“The only means of fighting a plague is common decency.”
Albert Camus · Absurdism · Modern · 1947
What does it mean?
The only means of fighting a plague, in the sense of Rieux's reply, is common decency. Tarrou wants to know how one becomes a saint. Rieux is more interested in being a man, and in doing the work. A rival reading hears a banal moral, kindness as policy, too small for politics. The novel's point is that the small work of tending is the fight, against a plague that is also an allegory and is also a plague. Another reading makes Rieux Camus's mouthpiece without remainder. The doctor is a character.
Did Albert Camus really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. Rieux's reply to the journalist Rambert, who is trying to leave Oran. Rambert then asks what 'common decency' means, and Rieux says that in his case it means doing his job. The card keeps Gilbert's sense; other translations differ in wording.
Where it comes from
The Plague, Part II, Rieux to Rambert, in Stuart Gilbert's translation
Approximate date: 1947.
How to use it
In an outbreak, or in the slower plague of a failing service, a team in an NHS trust argues about messaging while the practical decency, the visit, the shift, the clean ward, is what Rieux would count as the fight. The sentence does not solve procurement. It refuses to call the unglamorous work morally secondary. A management poster that says 'be decent' without the work is not the reply.
A mindset reading
Mark the paraphrase. If a particular English edition has a sharper sentence, use that sentence and retire this compression. Until then, the sense is secure enough to discuss and not secure enough to engrave.
Understand the philosophy
The conversation between Rieux and Rambert is the moral centre of The Plague, more than the last line about admiration. Gilbert is the translator. The reply is dialogue. Dialogue can still be the place a philosophy is willing to stand.
- ethics
- virtue
- society
FAQ
What does it mean?
The only means of fighting a plague, in the sense of Rieux's reply, is common decency. Tarrou wants to know how one becomes a saint. Rieux is more interested in being a man, and in doing the work. A rival reading hears a banal moral, kindness as policy, too small for politics. The novel's point is that the small work of tending is the fight, against a plague that is also an allegory and is also a plague. Another reading makes Rieux Camus's mouthpiece without remainder. The doctor is a character.
Did Albert Camus really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. Rieux's reply to the journalist Rambert, who is trying to leave Oran. Rambert then asks what 'common decency' means, and Rieux says that in his case it means doing his job. The card keeps Gilbert's sense; other translations differ in wording.
Which work is it in?
The Plague, Part II, Rieux to Rambert, in Stuart Gilbert's translation Approximate date: 1947.