Quotes from "The Plague", Part I, by Albert Camus, originally published
in 1948, Stuart Gilbert translation:
"The local press, so lavish of news about the rats, now had nothing to
say. For rats died in the street; men in their homes. And newspapers
are concerned only with the street."
"So long as each individual doctor had come across only two or three
cases, no one had thought of taking action."
Dr. Castel to Dr. Bernard Rieux: "The usual taboo, of course; the public
mustn't be alarmed, that wouldn't do at all."
"There have been as many plagues as wars in history; yet always plagues
and wars take people equally by surprise."
"When a war breaks out, people say: "It's too stupid; it can't last
long." ...Stupidity has a knack of getting its way; as we should see if
we were not always so much wrapped up in ourselves."
"A pestilence isn't a thing made to man's measure; therefore we tell
ourselves that pestilence is a mere bogy of the mind, a bad dream that
will pass away."
"They [our townsfolk] fancied themselves free, and no one will ever be
free so long as there are pestilences."
At health committee meeting:
"Richard [chairman of the local Medical Association - i.e., health
department] said that in his opinion the great thing was not to take an
alarmist view. ...Richard pointed out that this justified a policy of
wait-and-see; ... Richard said it was a mistake to paint too gloomy a
picture, ...Richard, however, summing up the situation as he saw it,
pointed out that if the epidemic did not cease spontaneously, it would
be necessary to apply the rigorous prophylactic measures laid down in
the Code... any hasty action was to be deprecated."
"It [the sickness] even found its way into the papers, but discreetly;
only a few brief references to it were made. On the following day,
however, Rieux observed that small official notices had been just put up
about the town, though in places where they would not attract much
attention. It was hard to find in these notices any indication that the
authorities were facing the situation squarely. ...one had the feeling
that many concessions had been made to a desire not to alarm the
public."
"The only hope was that the outbreak would die a natural death; it
certainly wouldn't be arrested by the measures the authorities had so
far devised."
Dr. Rieux to Dr. Castel: "I told Richard over the phone that energetic
measures were needed, not just words; we'd got to set up a real barrier
against the disease, otherwise we might just as well do nothing."
Last sentence of Part I:
"The telegram ran: Proclaim a state of plague stop close the town."
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