The Plague Quotes

He had a soldierly bearing, very erect, and affected a military style of dressing; his snow-white hair was always brushed to perfect smoothness. Leaning over the balcony he would call: "Pussy! Puss...

But at Oran the violent extremes of temperature, the exigencies of business, the uninspiring surroundings, the sudden nightfalls, and the very nature of its pleasures call for good health. An inval...

Still, if things had gone thus far and no farther, force of habit would doubtless have gained the day, as usual. But other members of our community, not all menials or poor people, were to follow t...

He had put the question solely to find out if Rambert could or couldn’t state the facts without paltering with the truth. "I’ve no use for statements in which something is kept back," h...

Then hurriedly he begged her to forgive him; he felt he should have looked after her better, he’d been most remiss. (1.2.21)

Everyone agreed that, considering their somewhat extraordinary character, they were out of place there. For its ordinariness is what first strikes one about the town of Oran. (1.1.1)

Most of those who took part in the Week of Prayer would have echoed a remark made by one of the churchgoers in Dr. Rieux’s hearing: "Anyhow, it can’t do any harm." (2.3.3)

"I always say," the woman began, "if they clapped all that scum in jail, decent folks could breathe more freely." She was too much startled by Cottard’s reaction—he dashed out of the sh...

The town itself, let us admit, is ugly (1.1.2)

Perhaps the easiest way of making the town’s acquaintance is to ascertain how the people in it work, how they love, and how they die. In our little town (is this, one wonders, an effect of th...

For example, after describing how the discovery of a dead rat led the hotel cashier to make an error in his bill, Tarrou added: "Query: How contrive not to waste one’s time? Answer: By being...

The morning noises of the streets sounded louder, gayer than usual. For everyone in our little town this day brought the promise of a new lease of life, now that the shadow of fear under which they...