April 1938
What sordid misery there is in the condition of a man who works and in a civilization based on men who work.
But we must hang on and not let go. The natural reaction is always to scatter your talents outside work, to make people admire you the easy way, to create an audience and an excuse for cowardice and play acting (most marriages are organized on this basis). Another inevitable reaction is to try to be clever about it. Besides, the two things fit in very well together, if you let yourself go physically, neglect your body, and let your will power slacken.
The first thing to do is keep silent—to abolish audiences and learn to be your own judge. To keep a balance between an active concern for the body and an attentive awareness of being alive. To give up all feeling that the world owes you a living and devote yourself to achieving two kinds of freedom: freedom from money and freedom from your own vanity and cowardice. Have rules and stick to them.
—Albert Camus
You can find this diary excerpt in Notebooks 1935-1942, by Albert Camus, The Modern Library: New York (p. 85).