Emile M. Cioran
Emile M. Cioran
NationalityRomanian
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth8 April 1911
CountryRomania
cheating thinking failing
Each time I fail to think about death, I have the impression of cheating, of deceiving someone in me.
fire tears world
True confessions are written with tears only. But my tears would drown the world, as my inner fire would reduce it to ashes.
dying lost born
We have lost, being born, as much as we shall lose dying: Everything!
wish vomiting sometimes
Sometimes I wish I were a cannibal – less for the pleasure of eating someone than for the pleasure of vomiting him.
arms rebel slave
Who Rebels? Who rises in arms? Rarely the slave, but almost always the oppressor turned slave.
zero struggle intention
I have always struggled, with the sole intention of ceasing to struggle. Result: zero.
tragedy would-be insects
What would be left of our tragedies if an insect were to present us his?
conviction ifs
We have convictions only if we have studied nothing thoroughly.
strong adventure blood
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.
lonely loneliness dying
We are so lonely in life that we must ask ourselves if the loneliness of dying is not a symbol of our human existence.
men long madness
So long as man is protected by madness - he functions - and flourishes.
time echoes ennui
Ennui is the echo in us of time tearing itself apart.
golden golden-rule incomplete
A golden rule: to leave an incomplete image of oneself.
intellectual nationality
I have no nationality - the best possible status for an intellectual.