“A pure love is a dead love.”

“At one time or another all normal people have wished their loved ones were dead.”

“And he knew, also, what the old man was thinking as his tears flowed, and he, Rieux, thought it too: that a loveless world is a dead world, and always there comes an hour when one is weary of prisons, of one's work, and of devotion to duty, and all one craves for is a loved face, the warmth and wonder of a loving heart.”

“A love that does not bear collision with reality is not a real love. But then the inability to love is a privilege of the noble hearts.”

“For there is merely bad luck in not being loved; there is misfortune in not loving.”

“Why should it be essential to love rarely in order to love much?”

“Rieux knew what the old man was thinking at that moment as he wept, and he thought the same: that this world without love was like a dead world and that there always comes a time when one grows tired of prisons, work and courage, and years for the face of another human being and the wondering, affectionate heart.”