Quotation
Last reviewed:
“I should like to be able to love my country and still love justice.”
Albert Camus · Absurdism · Modern · 1943
What does it mean?
He would like to love his country and still love justice. The letter to a German friend refuses the idea that love of country means agreeing that the country is right. A rival reading hears a mild liberal wish, above the fight. The letters are in the fight. He is explaining why the resistance was slow to answer cruelty with cruelty, and why it will answer. Another reading drops justice and keeps the patriotism, or drops the country and keeps a pure justice with no ground. The sentence is the refusal of that choice.
Did Albert Camus really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. Justin O'Brien's English, in Resistance, Rebellion, and Death. The first letter says he wants to love his country and still love justice. It is a wartime letter, not a detached cosmopolitan motto. The friend is a figure, not a private correspondent.
Where it comes from
Letters to a German Friend, first letter, in Justin O'Brien's translation
Approximate date: 1943.
How to use it
A debate in Belfast, or in any town where the flag is doing work, pressures people to pick the country or the criticism. The sentence is the wish to refuse the pressure. It does not tell you which policy is just. It tells you that a patriotism which requires you to stop asking is not the patriotism he is willing to claim. The letter is not neutral. He thinks the Nazi friend has already made the other choice.
A mindset reading
O'Brien collected the letters in Resistance, Rebellion, and Death. They are essays in the form of letters. Quote them as wartime argument, not as a postcard about being a citizen of the world. He is more attached, and more specific, than the postcard.
Understand the philosophy
The first letter is 1943, published later under his name. It belongs with The Rebel's limit on violence more than with the Stranger's indifference. Different books, different jobs. The love of justice is not Meursault's line.
- justice
- ethics
- society
FAQ
What does it mean?
He would like to love his country and still love justice. The letter to a German friend refuses the idea that love of country means agreeing that the country is right. A rival reading hears a mild liberal wish, above the fight. The letters are in the fight. He is explaining why the resistance was slow to answer cruelty with cruelty, and why it will answer. Another reading drops justice and keeps the patriotism, or drops the country and keeps a pure justice with no ground. The sentence is the refusal of that choice.
Did Albert Camus really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. Justin O'Brien's English, in Resistance, Rebellion, and Death. The first letter says he wants to love his country and still love justice. It is a wartime letter, not a detached cosmopolitan motto. The friend is a figure, not a private correspondent.
Which work is it in?
Letters to a German Friend, first letter, in Justin O'Brien's translation Approximate date: 1943.