Should I kill myself, or have a cup of coffee?

No documented Camus source was found. English Wikiquote’s Disputed section reports an uncited attribution in Barry Schwartz’s The Paradox of Choice, a book published in 2004; that date is independently confirmed by the bibliography of Schwartz’s April 2004 Scientific American article “The Tyranny of Choice.” The book passage itself was not inspected, so its exact words and page remain unconfirmed. The earliest directly inspected dated use in this run is You Sang-chul’s column of 22 December 2005, which credits Camus without naming a work. Gaetani’s 2016 outline includes a false letter ending with the coffee question, but supplies no dated origin for that letter. This run checked the English Wikiquote entry and Talk page, the French Wikipedia philosophy discussion and its scholarly reference, Gaetani’s article, Gallimard’s short French excerpts of The Myth of Sisyphus and The Rebel, the Société des Études camusiennes discussion of Sisyphus, the 2005 newspaper column, and a Quote Investigator site search for coffee with Camus (no result). No full Camus corpus was searched: his works are in copyright and the atlas holds no Camus source texts. The first appearance and actual author are not established; “apocryphal” records the unsupported attribution, not proof that Schwartz composed it.

1. 2004Earliest found · credited to Albert CamusThe earliest attribution located in the consulted secondary evidence is the uncited Camus attribution reported in Barry Schwartz’s The Paradox of Choice; its page and exact wording were not checked.Barry Schwartz, The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less (Ecco/HarperCollins, 2004), uncited Camus attribution reported by English Wikiquote. Checked on another researcher’s citation, not seen first-hand. Source
2. 22 December 2005Spread · credited to Albert CamusYou Sang-chul opens a newspaper column about choice with the coffee question attributed to Camus, without a work or page.Shall I kill myself? Or shall I have a cup of coffee?You Sang-chul, “[FOUNTAIN]Pick your pond well,” Korea JoongAng Daily, 22 December 2005. Checked in a full-text transcription. Source

An English quip sets a life-or-death decision beside an everyday choice. Wikiquote associates its circulation with Barry Schwartz’s The Paradox of Choice. A December 2005 newspaper column quotes a version as Camus’s and then discusses Schwartz’s argument about choosing. Giovanni Gaetani later includes a coffee-ending pseudo-letter among false Camus quotations on the internet.

The joke makes an immense existential decision sound like one more item on a daily menu of choices.

It is often treated as a literal sentence from Camus’s work. No Camus work, letter, page or recording supporting these words was established here. Its superficial resemblance to the opening question of The Myth of Sisyphus is not evidence of authorship.

• A misquotationShall I kill myself? Or shall I have a cup of coffee? The directly checked 2005 newspaper form. Its exact wording and attribution are documented; no authentic Camus original has been established. Where it was seen

Life, Death, Despair, Meaning of life

• There is only one truly serious philosophical problem: suicide.
• I have never let my schooling interfere with my education. (misattributed) Mark Twain
• When I’m good, I’m very good. But when I’m bad, I’m better. Mae West
• The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated. (paraphrase) Mark Twain
• Life is too important to be taken seriously. (paraphrase) Oscar Wilde

• en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Albert_Camus#Disputed
• etudes-camusiennes.fr/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Chroniques-18.pdf (Giovanni Gaetani, “Le noble art de mal citer Camus: de L’Étranger aux fausses citations sur internet,” Chroniques de la Société des Études camusiennes, no. 18, April 2016, p. 22, III.4; extracted PDF text, not page image)
• bschwartz.domains.swarthmore.edu/Sci.Amer.pdf (Barry Schwartz, “The Tyranny of Choice,” Scientific American, April 2004; bibliography gives the book’s title, publisher and 2004 date)

“Should I kill myself, or have a cup of coffee?” Attributed to Albert Camus. No. It is not in Camus’s works, and who first wrote it is not known. Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/should-i-kill-myself-or-have-a-cup-of-coffee/ (checked 24 October 2026).

Have a different wording, or a source we missed? Check it or submit it.

Do you hold the rights to anything on this page? Tell us.