Emile M. Cioran
Emile M. Cioran
NationalityRomanian
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth8 April 1911
CountryRomania
intelligence age belief
Intelligence flourishes only in the ages when belief withers.
loss men mad
We rightly scorn those who have no made use of their defects, who have not exploited their deficiencies, and have not been enriched by their losses, as we despise any man who does not suffer at being a man or simply at being. Hence no graver insult can be inflicted than to call someone 'happy', no greater flattery than to grant him a 'vein of melancholy'... This is because gaiety is link to no important action and because, except for the mad, no one laughs when he is alone.
men evil-people order
Man must vanquish himself, must do himself violence, in order to perform the slightest action untainted by evil.
sacrifice envy venture
To venture upon an undertaking of any kind, even the most insignificant, is to sacrifice to envy.
writing proportion fling
We die in proportion to the words we fling around us.
delight devouring
When we cannot be delivered from ourselves, we delight in devouring ourselves.
synthesis woe poison
Woes and wonders of Power, that tonic hell, synthesis of poison and panacea.
freedom long rejection
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.
world ruling
One hardly saves a world without ruling it.
source source-of-life subjective
the deepest subjective experiences are also the most universal, because through them one reaches the universal source of life.
men lasts relief
When every man has realized that his birth is a defeat, existence, endurable at last, will seem like the day after a surrender, like the relief and the repose of the conquered.
hero fighting destiny
The true hero fights and dies in the name of his destiny, and not in the name of a belief.
answers earth looks
Do I look like someone who has something to do here on earth?' —That's what I'd like to answer the busybodies who inquire into my activities.
lonely loneliness two
One can experience loneliness in two ways: by feeling lonely in the world or by feeling the loneliness of the world.