Emile M. Cioran
Emile M. Cioran
NationalityRomanian
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth8 April 1911
CountryRomania
depression fighting vitality
Only one endowed with restless vitality is susceptible to pessimism. You become a pessimist-a demonic, elemental, bestial pessimist-only when life has been defeated many times in its fight against depression.
doubt shame ifs
If we had the courage to confront the doubts we timidly conceive about ourselves, none of us would utter an 'I' without shame.
abuse philosopher pity
What a pity that 'nothingness' has been devalued by an abuse of it made by philosophers unworthy of it!
too-much events said
Even when nothing happens, everything seems too much for me. What can be said, then, in the presence of an event, any event?
long slave remains
One is and remains a slave as long as one is not cured of hoping.
demand hell protest
The more one has suffered, the less one demands. To protest is a sign one has traversed no hell.
melancholy universe
Melancholy redeems this universe, and yet it is melancholy that separates us from it.
mind function thinker
Beware of thinkers whose minds function only when they are fueled by a quotation.
memories depth shame
By virtue of depression, we recall those misdeeds we buried in the depths of our memory. Depression exhumes our shames.
philosophy believe thinking
As long as one believes in philosophy, one is healthy; sickness begins when one starts to think.
atheism missions contrary
My mission is to see things as they are. Exactly contrary of a mission.
men genius mediocrity
A man who fears ridicule will never go far, for good or ill: he remains on this side of this talents, and even if he has genius, he is doomed to mediocrity.
men feet paradise
Man started out on the wrong foot. The misadventure in paradise was the first consequence. The rest had to follow.
misunderstood age complaining
If you lack the power to demoralize yourself along with the age, to go as low and as far, do not complain of being misunderstood by it.