Albert Camus, The Plague

Tarrou: All I maintain is that on this earth there are pestilences and there are victims, and it’s up to us, so far as possible, not to join forces with the pestilences. That may sound simple to the point of childishness; I can’t judge if it’s simple, but I know it’s true. You see, I’d heard such quantities of arguments, which very nearly turned my head, and turned other people’s heads enough to make them approve of murder; and I’d come to realize that all our troubles spring from our failure to use plain, clean-cut language. So I resolved always to speak, and to act, quite clearly, as this was the only way of setting myself on the right track. That’s why I say there are pestilences and there are victims; no more than that. If, by making that statement, I, too, become a carrier of the plague-germ, at least I don’t do it willfully. I try, in short, to be an innocent murderer. You see, I’ve no great ambitions. I grant we should add a third category: that of the true healers. But it’s a fact one doesn’t come across many of them, and anyhow it must be a hard vocation. That’s why I decided to take, in every predicament, the victims’ side, so as to reduce the damage done. Among them I can at least try to discover how one attains to the third category; in other words, to peace.
After a short silence the doctor raised himself a little in his chair and asked if Tarrou had an idea of the path to follow for attaining peace.
Tarrou: Yes, the path of sympathy. It comes to this. What interests me is learning how to become a saint.
Rieux: But you don’t believe in God.
Tarrou: Exactly! Can one be a saint without God? That’s the problem, in fact the only problem, I’m up against today.
Rieux: You know, I feel more fellowship with the defeated than with saints. Heroism and sanctity don’t really appeal to me, I imagine. What interests me is being a man.
Tarrou: Yes, we’re both after the same thing, but I’m less ambitious.
Tarrou: Do you know what we now should do for friendship’s sake?
Rieux: Anything you like, Tarrou.
Tarrou: Go for a swim. It’s one of these harmless pleasures that even a saint-to-be can indulge in, don’t you agree? Really, it’s too damn silly living only in and for the plague. Of course, a man should fight for the victims, but if he ceases caring for anything outside that, what’s the use of his fighting?

Albert Camus, The Plague