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Home
Authors
Emile M. Cioran
Romanian
Philosopher
About the author
Glory - once achieved, what is it worth?
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Worth
#Glory
God - a disease we imagine we are cured of because no one dies of it nowadays.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#God
#Disease
Great persecutors are recruited among martyrs whose heads haven't been cut off.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Martyrs
To act is to anchor in the imminent future.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Act
#Future
The limit of every pain is an even greater pain.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Pain
The mind is the result of the torments the flesh undergoes or inflicts upon itself.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Result
#Mind
The more we try to rest ourselves from our Egos, the deeper we sink into it.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Rest
The obsession with suicide is characteristic of the man who can neither live nor die, and whose attention never swerves from this double impossibility.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Man
#Attention
#Suicide
#Obsession
#Impossibility
The task of the solitary man is to be even more solitary.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Man
The fear of being deceived is the vulgar version of the quest for Truth.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Fear
#Being
#Truth
#Quest
There is no means of proving it is preferable to be than not to be.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
Society is not a disease, it is a disaster. What a stupid miracle that one can live in it.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Society
#Disease
#Disaster
To exist is a habit I do not despair of acquiring.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Habit
#Despair
To Live signifies to believe and hope - to lie and to lie to oneself.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Hope
#Lie
The Universal view melts things into a blur.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
The fanatic is incorruptible: if he kills for an idea, he can just as well get himself killed for one; in either case, tyrant or martyr, he is a monster.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Idea
#Martyr
The desire to die was my one and only concern; to it I have sacrificed everything, even death.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Death
#Desire
#Concern
Philosophers write for professors; thinkers for writers.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Writers
So long as man is protected by madness - he functions - and flourishes.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Man
#Madness
Skepticism is the sadism of embittered souls.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Skepticism
Since all life is futility, then the decision to exist must be the most irrational of all.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Life
#Decision
Revenge is not always sweet, once it is consummated we feel inferior to our victim.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Revenge
Reason is a whore, surviving by simulation, versatility, and shamelessness.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Reason
Progress is the injustice each generation commits with regard to its predecessors.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Progress
#Injustice
Philosophy: Impersonal anxiety; refuge among anemic ideas.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Ideas
#Anxiety
To venture upon an undertaking of any kind, even the most insignificant, is to sacrifice to envy.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Sacrifice
#Envy
What pride to discover that nothing belongs to you - what a revelation.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Nothing
#Pride
Speech and silence. We feel safer with a madman who talks than with one who cannot open his mouth.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Open
#Speech
#Silence
We interest others by the misfortune we spread around us.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Interest
#Misfortune
Our works, whatever they may be, derive from our incapacity to kill or to kill ourselves.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#May
Sperm is a bandit in its pure state.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#State
Write books only if you are going to say in them the things you would never dare confide to anyone.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Books
Word - that invisible dagger.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Word
Woes and wonders of Power, that tonic hell, synthesis of poison and panacea.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Hell
#Power
#Poison
#Wonders
Who Rebels? Who rises in arms? Rarely the slave, but almost always the oppressor turned slave.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
When we cannot be delivered from ourselves, we delight in devouring ourselves.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Delight
What would be left of our tragedies if an insect were to present us his?
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Present
What surrounds us we endure better for giving it a name - and moving on.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Name
#Giving
What does the future, that half of time, matter to the man who is infatuated with eternity?
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Time
#Man
#Future
#Eternity
We would not be interested in human beings if we did not have the hope of someday meeting someone worse off than ourselves.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Hope
#Meeting
We understand God by everything in ourselves that is fragmentary, incomplete, and inopportune.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#God
To want fame is to prefer dying scorned than forgotten.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Want
#Fame
#Dying
We inhabit a language rather than a country.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Country
#Language
We die in proportion to the words we fling around us.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Words
We derive our vitality from our store of madness.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Madness
#Vitality
We define only out of despair, we must have a formula... to give a facade tot he void.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Despair
#Formula
We are born to Exist, not to know, to be, not to assert ourselves.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
We are afraid of the enormity of the possible.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
Under each formula lies a corpse.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Lies
#Formula
Truths begin by a conflict with the police - and end by calling them in.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#End
#Police
#Conflict
Torment, for some men, is a need, an appetite, and an accomplishment.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Men
#Accomplishment
#Appetite
Tolerance - the function of an extinguished ardor - tolerance cannot seduce the young.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Tolerance
You are done for - a living dead man - not when you stop loving but stop hating. Hatred preserves: in it, in its chemistry, resides the mystery of life.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Life
#Man
#Living
#Mystery
#Hatred
Criticism is a misconception: we must read not to understand others but to understand ourselves.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Criticism
If we could see ourselves as others see us, we would vanish on the spot.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
I'm simply an accident. Why take it all so seriously?
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Accident
I have no nationality - the best possible status for an intellectual.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Nationality
I foresee the day when we shall read nothing but telegrams and prayers.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Nothing
#Day
For you who no longer posses it, freedom is everything, for us who do, it is merely an illusion.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Freedom
#Illusion
Everything is pathology, except for indifference.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Indifference
Every thought derives from a thwarted sensation.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Thought
If, at the limit, you can rule without crime, you cannot do so without injustices.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Crime
Each concession we make is accompanied by an inner diminution of which we are not immediately conscious.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
Ambition is a drug that makes its addicts potential madmen.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Potential
#Ambition
Crime in full glory consolidates authority by the sacred fear it inspires.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Fear
#Crime
#Authority
#Glory
Consciousness is much more than the thorn, it is the dagger in the flesh.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Consciousness
Chaos is rejecting all you have learned, Chaos is being yourself.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Being
#Chaos
By all evidence we are in the world to do nothing.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Nothing
#World
Anyone who speaks in the name of others is always an imposter.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Name
Anyone can escape into sleep, we are all geniuses when we dream, the butcher's the poet's equal there.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Dream
#Sleep
A sudden silence in the middle of a conversation suddenly brings us back to essentials: it reveals how dearly we must pay for the invention of speech.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Invention
#Conversation
#Speech
#Silence
A marvel that has nothing to offer, democracy is at once a nation's paradise and its tomb.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Nothing
#Democracy
#Nation
#Paradise
A golden rule: to leave an incomplete image of oneself.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
Our first intuitions are the true ones.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#First
The fact that life has no meaning is a reason to live - moreover, the only one.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Life
#Reason
#Fact
#Meaning
Ennui is the echo in us of time tearing itself apart.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Time
#Echo
No one can enjoy freedom without trembling.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Freedom
A people represents not so much an aggregate of ideas and theories as of obsessions.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#People
#Ideas
#Theories
#Obsessions
Imaginary pains are by far the most real we suffer, since we feel a constant need for them and invent them because there is no way of doing without them.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
Nothing proves that we are more than nothing.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Nothing
Nothing is so wearing as the possession or abuse of liberty.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Nothing
#Liberty
#Abuse
#Possession
One does not inhabit a country; one inhabits a language. That is our country, our fatherland - and no other.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Country
#Language
One hardly saves a world without ruling it.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#World
Negation is the mind's first freedom, yet a negative habit is fruitful only so long as we exert ourselves to overcome it, adapt it to our needs; once acquired it can imprison us.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Freedom
#Needs
#First
#Habit
#Mind
#Negative
My mission is to kill time, and time's to kill me in its turn. How comfortable one is among murderers.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Time
#Mission
Music is the refuge of souls ulcerated by happiness.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Music
#Happiness
Man starts over again everyday, in spite of all he knows, against all he knows.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Man
Man must vanquish himself, must do himself violence, in order to perform the slightest action untainted by evil.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Action
#Man
#Evil
#Violence
#Order
A civilization is destroyed only when its gods are destroyed.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Civilization
#Gods
Impossible to spend sleepless nights and accomplish anything: if, in my youth, my parents had not financed my insomnias, I should surely have killed myself.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Youth
#Parents
No one recovers from the disease of being born, a deadly wound if there ever was one.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Being
#Disease
Life is possible only by the deficiencies of our imagination and memory.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Life
#Imagination
#Memory
In every man sleeps a prophet, and when he wakes there is a little more evil in the world.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#World
#Man
#Evil
In order to have the stuff of a tyrant, a certain mental derangement is necessary.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Order
Intelligence flourishes only in the ages when belief withers.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Belief
#Intelligence
Isn't history ultimately the result of our fear of boredom?
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Fear
#Result
#History
#Boredom
It is because we are all imposters that we endure each other.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
It is not worth the bother of killing yourself, since you always kill yourself too late.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Worth
#Killing
Jealousy - that jumble of secret worship and ostensible aversion.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Worship
#Jealousy
Life creates itself in delirium and is undone in ennui.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Life
Life inspires more dread than death - it is life which is the great unknown.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Life
#Death
A distant enemy is always preferable to one at the gate.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Enemy
In a republic, that paradise of debility, the politician is a petty tyrant who obeys the laws.
Emile M. Cioran,
Romanian
Philosopher
#Laws
#Paradise