But crushing truths perish from being acknowledged. Thus Edipus at the outset obeys fate without knowing it. But from the moment he knows, his tragedy begins. Yet at the same moment, blind and desperate, he realizes that the only bond linking him to the world is the cool hand of a girl. Sophocles' Edipus, like Dostoevsky's Kirilov, thus gives the recipe for the absurd victory.
Ancient wisdom confirms modern heroism.
One does not discover the absurd without being tempted to write a manual of happiness. There is but one world, however. Happiness and the absurd are two sons of the same earth. They are inseparable. It would be a mistake to say that happiness necessarily springs from the absurd.