The Sun as Gift

"Poverty kept me from thinking all was well under the sun and in history;

the sun taught me that history is not everything."

                                                      --Albert Camus, "Preface," Lyrical and Critical Essays

"The sea was gentle and warm, the sun fell lightly on their soaked heads, and the glory of the light filled their young bodies with a joy that made them cry out incessantly.  They reigned over life and over the sea, and, like nobles certain that their riches were limitless, they heedlessly consumed the most gorgeous of this world's offerings."

                                                  --Albert Camus, The First Man (his semi-autobiographical
                                                                        novel about his poor childhood in Algeria)