Interpreting a quote?

Question

I really need help interpreting a quote by Albert Camus: "For Everything begins with consciousness and nothing is worth anything except through it." Help would be appreciated, thanks!

Answer 1

Consciousness is awareness.

He's saying that only when people become aware of something can anything be done about it.  Otherwise your efforts are useless.

As an example, many people wear the pink breast cancer awareness ribbons.  But does it mean much if someone at the mall is passing them out and you take one, pin it to your shirt and forget about it?  Do you know anything at all about breast cancer or how to help people with it just by wearing the ribbon?

No.

It's only worth something if it inspires you to find out more about the disease.  Getting that information and thinking about it.  Because once you really become aware of the problem, you make a real effort to do what you can to help.  

That's what he's telling us - that if you don't begin with knowledge and awareness, your efforts won't do much good.

Answer 2

The following is an excerpt from Albert Camus' "The Myth of Sisyphus".  I am certain that after reading it, you will gain some insight in interpreting your quote:

It is during that return, that pause, that Sisyphus interests me. A face that toils so close to stones is already stone itself! I see that man going back down with a heavy yet measured step toward the torment of which he will never know the end. That hour like a breathing-space which returns as surely as his suffering, THAT IS THE HOUR OF CONSCIOUSNESS. At each of those moments when he leaves the heights and gradually sinks toward the lairs of the gods, he is superior to his fate. He is stronger than his rock.

If this myth is tragic, that is because its hero is CONSCIOUS. Where would his torture be, indeed, if at every step the hope of succeeding upheld him? The workman of today works everyday in his life at the same tasks, and his fate is no less absurd. But it is tragic only at the rare moments when it becomes CONSCIOUS. Sisyphus, proletarian of the gods, powerless and rebellious, knows the whole extent of his wretched condition: it is what he thinks of during his descent. The lucidity that was to constitute his torture at the same time crowns his victory. There is no fate that can not be surmounted by scorn.

Answer 3

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