Emil Cioran Quotes
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A man does not kill himself, as is commonly supposed, in a fit of madness but rather in a fit of unendurable lucidity, in a paroxysm which may, if so desired, be identified with madness; for an excessive perspicacity, carried to the limit and of which one longs to be rid at all costs, exceeds the context of reason.
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'I am like a broken puppet whose eyes have fallen inside.' This remark of a mental patient weighs more heavily than a whole stack of works on introspection.
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The true hero fights and dies in the name of his destiny, and not in the name of a belief.
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It is an understatement to say that in this society injustices abound: in truth, it is itself the quintessence of injustice.
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Espousing the melancholy of ancient symbols, I would have freed myself.
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Erosion of our being by our infirmities: the resulting void is filled by the presence of consciousness, what am I saying? - that void is consciousness itself.
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When you know that every problem is only a false problem, you are dangerously close to salvation.
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What a judgment upon the living, if it is true, as has been maintained, that what dies has never existed!
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There is no one whose death I have not longed for, at one moment or another.
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Transmitting one's flaws through procreation to someone else is a crime. I could never consent to give life to someone who would inherent my ailments.
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The only minds which seduce us are the minds which have destroyed themselves trying to give their life a meaning.
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I react like everyone else, even like those I most despise; but I make up for it by deploring every action I commit, good or bad.
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Vague a l'ame - melancholy yearning for the end of the world.
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To be is to be cornered.
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Love of the absolute engenders a predilection for self-destruction. Hence the passion for monasteries and brothels. Cells and women, in both cases. Weariness with life fares well in the shadow of whores and saintly women.
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The wrinkles of a nation are as visible as those of an individual.
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When we know what words are worth, the amazing thing is that we try to say anything at all, and that we manage to do so. This requires, it is true, a supernatural nerve.
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I feel safer with a Pyrrho than with a St. Paul, for a jesting wisdom is gentler than an unbridled sanctity.
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I saw that philosophy had no power to make my life more bearable. Thus I lost my belief in philosophy.
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Revenge is not always sweet: once it is consummated we feel inferior to our victim.
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I would like to go mad on one condition, namely, that I would become a happy madman, lively and always in a good mood, without any troubles and obsessions, laughing senselessly from morning to night.
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The worst is not ennui nor despair but their encounter, their collision. To be crushed between the two!
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In theory, it matters little to me whether I live as whether I die; in practice, I am lacerated by every anxiety which opens an abyss between life and death.
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One hardly saves a world without ruling it.