Emil M. Cioran: Trending quotes (page 5)

“The worst is not ennui nor despair but their encounter, their collision. To be crushed between the two!”

“To Live signifies to believe and hope — to lie and to lie to oneself.”

“Every thought derives from a thwarted sensation.”

“Without will, no conflict: no tragedy among the abulic. Yet the failure of will can be experienced more painfully than a tragic destiny.”

“He who has never envied the vegetable has missed the human drama.”

“There is always someone above you: beyond God Himself rises Nothingness.”

“Tragic paradox of freedom: the mediocre men who alone make its exercise possible cannot guarantee its duration.”

“Reality is a creation of our excesses.”

“Vague a l'ame — melancholy yearning for the end of the world.”

“How many disappointments are conducive to bitterness? One or a thousand, depending on the subject.”

“To be or not to be…Neither one nor the other.”

“What an incitation to hilarity, hearing the word goal while following a funeral procession!”

“To live in a saint's heart? I'm afraid of setting the sky ablaze.”

“There is no false sensation.”

“Old age, after all, is merely the punishment for having lived.”

“Dead of night. No one, nothing but the society of the moments. Each pretends to keep us company, then escapes — desertion after desertion.”

“Sooner or later, each desire must encounter its lassitude: its truth...”

“The surest means of not losing your mind on the spot: remembering that everything is unreal, and will remain so…”

“One disgust, then another — to the point of losing the use of speech and even of the mind…The greatest exploit of my life is to be still alive.”