Emile M. Cioran Quotes

Quotes about:

• If each of us were to confess his most secret desire, the one that inspires all his plans, all his actions, he would say: "I want to be praised."

  Emile M. Cioran

  Inspire, Secret, Desire

  6 Copy quote

• A golden rule: to leave an incomplete image of oneself.

  Emile M. Cioran

  Golden, Golden Rule, Incomplete

  Emile M. Cioran (1976). “The Trouble with Being Born”, Viking Books

  6 Copy quote

• What can be said, lacks reality. Only what fails to make its way into words exists and counts.

  Emile M. Cioran

  Reality, Way, Failing

  "Drawn and Quartered". Book by Emil Cioran, 1983.

  7 Copy quote

• As long as one believes in philosophy, one is healthy; sickness begins when one starts to think.

  Emile M. Cioran

  Philosophy, Believe, Thinking

  "Tears and Saints". Book by Emile M. Cioran, 1937.

  10 Copy quote

• This very second has vanished forever, lost in the anonymous mass of the irrevocable. It will never return. I suffer from this and I do not. Everything is unique - and insignificant.

  Emile M. Cioran

  Unique, Forever, Suffering

  Emile M. Cioran (1976). “The Trouble with Being Born”, Viking Books

  6 Copy quote

• Show me one thing here on earth which has begun well and not ended badly. The proudest palpitations are engulfed in a sewer, where they cease throbbing, as though having reached their natural term: this downfall constitutes the heart's drama and the negative meaning of history.

  Emile M. Cioran

  Drama, Heart, Age

  Emile M. Cioran (1975). “A short history of decay”, Viking Books

  11 Copy quote

• After having struggled madly to solve all problems, after having suffered on the heights of despair, in the supreme hour of revelation, you will find that the only answer, the only reality, is silence.

  Emile M. Cioran

  Reality, Silence, Despair

  5 Copy quote

• Ideas should be neutral. But man animates them with his passions and folly. Impure and turned into beliefs, they take on the appearance of reality. The passage from logic is consummated. Thus are born ideologies, doctrines, and bloody farce.

  Emile M. Cioran

  Passion, Reality, Men

  "A Short History of Decay". Book by Emile M. Cioran, 1949.

  37 Copy quote

• Democracy: a festival of mediocrity.

  Emile M. Cioran

  Cynical, Democracy, Mediocrity

  23 Copy quote

• We have convictions only if we have studied nothing thoroughly.

  Emile M. Cioran

  Conviction, Ifs

  Emile M. Cioran (1976). “The Trouble with Being Born”, Viking Books

  6 Copy quote

• The more one has suffered, the less one demands. To protest is a sign one has traversed no hell.

  Emile M. Cioran

  Demand, Hell, Protest

  "Anathemas and Admirations". Book by Emil Cioran, 1987.

  49 Copy quote

• Only optimists commit suicide, optimists who no longer succeed at being optimists. The others, having no reason to live, why would they have any to die?

  Emile M. Cioran

  Suicide, Succeed, Reason

  54 Copy quote

• What do you do from morning to night?" "I endure myself.

  Emile M. Cioran

  Morning, Night, Endure

  Emile M. Cioran (1976). “The Trouble with Being Born”, Viking Books

  27 Copy quote

• If we could see ourselves as others see us, we would vanish on the spot.

  Emile M. Cioran

  Spots, Ifs

  Emile M. Cioran (1976). “The Trouble with Being Born”, Viking Books

  19 Copy quote

• The fact that life has no meaning is a reason to live - moreover, the only one.

  Emile M. Cioran

  Meaning Of Life, Facts, Reason

  "Anathemas and Admirations". Book by Emile M. Cioran, 1987.

  64 Copy quote

• Chaos is rejecting all you have learned, chaos is being yourself.

  Emile M. Cioran

  Being Yourself, Chaos, Chaos In The World

  Emile M. Cioran (1975). “A short history of decay”, Viking Books

  52 Copy quote

• As far as I am concerned, I resign from humanity. I no longer want to be, nor can still be, a man. What should I do? Work for a social and political system, make a girl miserable? Hunt for weaknesses in philosophical systems, fight for moral and esthetic ideals? It’s all too little. I renounce my humanity even though I may find myself alone. But am I not already alone in this world from which I no longer expect anything?

  Emile M. Cioran

  Girl, Philosophical, Fighting

  "On the Heights of Despair". Book by Emile M. Cioran, 1934.

  37 Copy quote

• I don’t understand why we must do things in this world, why we must have friends and aspirations, hopes and dreams. Wouldn’t it be better to retreat to a faraway corner of the world, where all its noise and complications would be heard no more? Then we could renounce culture and ambitions; we would lose everything and gain nothing; for what is there to be gained from this world?

  Emile M. Cioran

  Dream, Ambition, Would Be

  "On the Heights of Despair". Book by Emile M. Cioran, 1934.

  10 Copy quote

• Old age, after all, is merely the punishment for having lived.

  Emile M. Cioran

  Punishment, Age, Old Age

  "Drawn and Quartered". Book by Emil Cioran, 1983.

  13 Copy quote

• There was a time when time did not yet exist.

  Emile M. Cioran

  Time

  Emile M. Cioran (1976). “The Trouble with Being Born”, Viking Books

  12 Copy quote

• What I know at sixty, I knew as well at twenty. Forty years of a long, superfluous, labor of verification.

  Emile M. Cioran

  Years, Long, Twenties

  Emile M. Cioran (1976). “The Trouble with Being Born”, Viking Books

  11 Copy quote

• I am the beast with a contorted grin, contracting down to illusion and dilating toward infinity, both growing and dying, delightfully suspended between hope for nothing and despair of everything, brought up among perfumes and poisons, consumed with love and hatred, killed by lights and shadows. My symbol is death of light and the flame of death. Sparks die in me only to be reborn as thunder and lightning. Darkness itself glows in me.

  Emile M. Cioran

  Light, Flames, Hatred

  32 Copy quote

• Trees are massacred, houses go up — faces, faces everywhere. Man is spreading. Man is the cancer of the earth.

  Emile M. Cioran

  Cancer, Men, Tree

  37 Copy quote

• Only those moments count, when the desire to remain by yourself is so powerful that you'd prefer to blow your brains out than exchange a word with someone.

  Emile M. Cioran

  Powerful, Blow, Brain

  "The New Gods". Book by Emile M. Cioran, 1969.

  18 Copy quote

• It is not worth the bother of killing yourself, since you always kill yourself too late.

  Emile M. Cioran

  Suicide, Suicidal, Too Late

  Emile M. Cioran (1976). “The Trouble with Being Born”, Viking Books

  31 Copy quote

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