a ravenous appetite for life

Oh yes, that was how it was,
the life of this child was like that:
that was how life was
in the neighbourhood's island of poverty,
bound together by stark necessity,
in an ignorant and handicapped family,
with its youthful blood boiling,
a ravenous appetite for life,
an untamed and hungry intellect,
and all the while an ecstasy of joy
punctuated by a world unknown to him,
leaving him abashed at the time,
but he would quickly recover,
trying to understand, to learn,
to assimilate this world he did not know,
and he did assimilate it,
because he seized upon it so avidly,
not trying to worm his way in;
he was willing to go along
but would not abase himself,
and finally he was never
without a sure confidence,
yes a certainty, since he was guaranteed
that he would achieve everything
he desired and nothing would
ever be impossible for him,
nothing that is of this world
and only of this world;
he was preparing himself
to find his place anywhere,
because there was no position
he wanted, but only joy,
and free spirits, and energy,
and all that life has that is good,
that is mysterious, that is not
and never will be for sale.

-Albert Camus in The First Man