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Emil M. Cioran Quotes
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Emil Cioran was a Romanian philosopher and essayist, who published works in both Romanian and French. His work has been noted for its pervasive philosophical pessimism, and frequently engages with issues of suffering, decay, and nihilism. Among his best-known works are On the Heights of Despair and The Trouble with Being Born . Cioran's first French book, A Short History of Decay, was awarded the prestigious Rivarol Prize in 1950. The Latin Quarter of Paris was his permanent residence and he lived much of his life in isolation with his partner Simone Boué. Wikipedia  

✵ 8. April 1911 – 20. June 1995
Emil M. Cioran photo
Emil M. Cioran: 531 quotes389 likes

Emil M. Cioran Quotes

“When we are young, we take a certain pleasure in our infirmities. They seem so new, so rich! With age, they no longer surprise us, we know them too well. Now, without anything unexpected in them, they do not deserve to be endured.”

Emil M. Cioran book The Trouble With Being Born

The Trouble With Being Born (1973)

“I am enraptured by Hindu philosophy, whose essential endeavor is to surmount the self; and everything I do, everything I think is only myself and the selfs humiliations.”

Emil M. Cioran book The Trouble With Being Born

The Trouble With Being Born (1973)

“My faculty for disappointment surpasses understanding. It is what lets me comprehend Buddha, but also what keeps me from following him.”

Emil M. Cioran book The Trouble With Being Born

The Trouble With Being Born (1973)

“It is debasing to die the way one does; it is intolerable to be exposed to an end over which we have no control, an end which lies in wait for us, overthrows us, casts us into the unnameable. ”

Emil M. Cioran

The New Gods (1969)

“We should, out of decency, choose for ourselves the moment to disappear.”

Emil M. Cioran

The New Gods (1969)

“Why don't I commit suicide? Because I am as sick of death as I am of life.”

Emil M. Cioran

On the Heights of Despair (1934)

“I admire only two types of people: the potentially mad and the potential suicide.”

Emil M. Cioran

On the Heights of Despair (1934)

“Maybe suffering has no more justification than life.”

Emil M. Cioran

On the Heights of Despair (1934)

“There is only this swarm of dying creatures stricken with longevity, all the more hateful in that they are so good at organizing their agony.”

Emil M. Cioran

Source: The Fall Into Time (1964), p. 120, first American edition (1970)

“At the edge of life you feel that you are no longer master of the life within you, that subjectivity is an illusion, and that uncontrollable forces are seething inside you, evolving with no relation to a personal center or a definite, individual rhythm.”

Emil M. Cioran

On the Heights of Despair (1934), essay 2 - On not wanting to live