Emile M. Cioran Quotes

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My mission is to kill time, and time's to kill me in its turn. How comfortable one is among murderers.

Emile M. Cioran

Missions, Kill Me, Murderer

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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.

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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

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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.

42 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.

56 Copy quote
I feel completely detached from any country, any group. I am a metaphysically displaced person

Emile M. Cioran

Country, Groups, Feels

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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

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Not to be born is undoubtedly the best plan of all. Unfortunately, it is within no one's reach.

Emile M. Cioran

Life Sucks, Best Laid Plans, Hate Life

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

39 Copy quote
Once you see that everything is unreal, you can't see why you should bother to prove it.

Emile M. Cioran

Crazy, Mad, Should

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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

61 Copy quote
No matter which way we go, it is no better than any other. It is all the same whether you achieve something or not, have faith or not, just as it is all the same whether you cry or remain silent.

Emile M. Cioran

Have Faith, Matter, Way

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

24 Copy quote
Nothing sweeter than to drag oneself along behind events; and nothing more reasonable. But without a strong dose of madness, no initiative, no enterprise, no gesture. Reason: the rust of our vitality. It is the madman in us who forces us to adventure; once he abandons us, we are lost; everything depends on him, even our vegetative life; it is he who invites us, who obliges us to breathe, and it is also he who forces our blood to venture through our veins. Once he withdraws, we are alone indeed! We cannot be normal and alive at the same time.

Emile M. Cioran

Strong, Adventure, Blood

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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

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Democracy: a festival of mediocrity.

Emile M. Cioran

Cynical, Democracy, Mediocrity

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To hope is to contradict the future.

Emile M. Cioran

Emile M. Cioran (1999). “All Gall is Divided: Gnomes and Apothegms”, p.83, Arcade Publishing

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I have decided not to oppose anyone ever again, since I have noticed that I always end by resembling my latest enemy.

Emile M. Cioran

Enemy, Ends, Decided

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

37 Copy quote
The sole means of protecting your solitude is to offend everyone, beginning with those you love.

Emile M. Cioran

Mean, Solitude, Sole

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

31 Copy quote
Our first intuitions are the true ones.

Emile M. Cioran

Intuition, Firsts, True Ones

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

68 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

34 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

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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

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By all evidence we are in the world to do nothing.

Emile M. Cioran

World, Evidence

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

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I would like to explode, flow, crumble into dust, and my disintegration would be my masterpiece.

Emile M. Cioran

Dust, Would Be, Flow

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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

17 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.

70 Copy quote

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Emile M. Cioran

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Born: April 8, 1911
Died: June 20, 1995
Occupation: Philosopher
Cite this Page: Citation

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