Emile M. Cioran
Emile M. Cioran
NationalityRomanian
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth8 April 1911
CountryRomania
rejection violence accepting
To live... in any sense of the word... is to reject others; to accept them, one must renounce, do oneself violence.
passion reality men
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.
self flaws easy
How easy it is to be "deep": all you have to do is let yourself sink into your own flaws.
void infinite throwing
How good would it be if one could die by throwing oneself into an infinite void.
enemy ends decided
I have decided not to oppose anyone ever again, since I have noticed that I always end by resembling my latest enemy.
history mind degradation
History is nothing but a procession of false Absolutes, a series of temples raised to pretexts, a degradation of the mind before the Improbable.
cancer men tree
Trees are massacred, houses go up — faces, faces everywhere. Man is spreading. Man is the cancer of the earth.
suicide succeed reason
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?
real fall thinking
How important can it be that I suffer and think? My presence in this world will disturb a few tranquil lives and will unsettle the unconscious and pleasant naiveté of others. Although I feel that my tragedy is the greatest in history—greater than the fall of empires—I am nevertheless aware of my total insignificance. I am absolutely persuaded that I am nothing in this universe; yet I feel that mine is the only real existence.
ghost mask curtains
The curtain of the universe is moth-eaten, and through its holes we see nothing now but mask and ghost.
regret men world
Paradise was unendurable, otherwise the first man would have adapted to it; this world is no less so, since here we regret paradise or anticipate another one. What to do? Where to go? Do nothing and go nowhere, easy enough.
life-and-death people overcoming
Death makes no sense except to people who have passionately loved life. How can one die without having something to part from? Detachment is a negation of both life and death. Whoever has overcome his fear of death has also triumphed over life. For life is nothing but another word for this fear.
gorillas novelty needs
The need for novelty is the characteristic of an alienated gorilla.
intuition firsts true-ones
Our first intuitions are the true ones.