The act of rebellion carries him beyond the point he…

““The act of rebellion carries him beyond the point he reached by simply refusing. He exceeds the bounds that he established for his antagonist and demands that he should now be treated as an equal. What was, originally, an obstinate resistance on the part of the rebel, becomes the rebel personified. He proceeds to put self-respect above everything else and proclaims that it is preferable to life itself. It becomes, for him, the supreme blessing. Having previously been willing to compromise, the slave suddenly adopts an attitude of All or Nothing. Knowledge is born and conscience awakened. But it is obvious that the knowledge he gains is of an ‘All’ that is still rather obscure and of a ‘Nothing’ that proclaims the possibility of sacrificing the rebel to this ‘All’. The rebel himself wants to be ‘All’ – to identify himself completely with this blessing of which he has suddenly become aware and of which he wishes to be recognized and proclaimed as the incarnation – or ‘Nothing’ which means to be completely destroyed by the power that governs him. As a last resort he is willing to accept the final defeat, which is death, rather than be deprived of the last sacrament which he would call, for example, freedom.””

— Albert Camus