From the Notebooks
In the Introduction to his 1951 book, The Human Revolt (a/k/a The Rebel), Camus said about suicide: “[F]rom this act of self-destruction itself a value arises which, perhaps, might have made it worth while to live.” In other words, Camus asked, Why would you commit suicide? And from that answer he weaved together a reason for living. The mere idea of committing suicide has the seeds of a reason for living inside it. By committing suicide, a person says there is nothing to live for–and thereby implies there should be and, if there should be, then there must be something to put the imperative in there in the first place. A wannabe suicide walks up to you and says, “I want to die because my hopes are dashed.” You can respond, “And where did you get those hopes and why did you put so much stock in them? What is it about you that hopes and dreams and gets disappointed? If there is something in you or about existence in the world that shoots so high, there is something in you or about existence in the world that deserves not to be shot.”
