Quotes Emil M. Cioran

„As long as one believes in philosophy, one is healthy; sickness begins when one starts to think.“

—  Emil M. Cioran

Tears and Saints (1937)

Thinking

„All morning, I did nothing but repeat: "Man is an abyss, man is an abyss." - I could not, alas, find anything better.“

—  Emil M. Cioran

Drawn and Quartered (1983)

„Philosophers write for professors; thinkers for writers.“

—  Emil M. Cioran

Drawn and Quartered (1983)

„In order to conceive, and to steep ourselves in, unreality, we must have it constantly present to our minds. The day we feel it, see it, everything becomes unreal, except that unreality which alone makes existence tolerable.“

—  Emil M. Cioran

The New Gods (1969)

Feeling

„To suffer is to produce knowledge.“

—  Emil M. Cioran

The New Gods (1969)

Suffering, Knowledge

„The skeptic is the least mysterious man in the world, and yet, starting from a certain moment, he no longer belongs to this world.“

—  Emil M. Cioran

The New Gods (1969)

World

„There are questions which, once approached, either isolate you or kill you outright.“

—  Emil M. Cioran

On the Heights of Despair (1934)

Question

„The skepticism which fails to contribute to the ruin of our health is merely an intellectual exercise.“

—  Emil M. Cioran

All Gall Is Divided (1952)

Exercises, Health

„The reaction against your own thought in itself lends life to thought. How this reaction is born is hard to describe, because it identifies with the very rare intellectual tragedies. ––The tension, the degree and level of intensity of a thought proceeds from its internal antinomies, which in turn are derived from the unsolvable contradictions of a soul. Thought cannot solve the contradictions of the soul. As far as linear thinking is concerned, thoughts mirror themselves in other thoughts, instead of mirroring a destiny.“

—  Emil M. Cioran

The Book of Delusions (1936)

Thinking, Soul, Life

„The Creation was the first act of sabotage.“

—  Emil M. Cioran

All Gall Is Divided (1952)

„One does not inhabit a country; one inhabits a language. That is our country, our fatherland — and no other.“

—  Emil M. Cioran

Variant translation: We inhabit a language rather than a country.
Anathemas and Admirations (1987)

Country

„We are fulfilled only when we aspire to nothing, when we are impregnated by that nothing to the point of intoxication.“

—  Emil M. Cioran

On the Heights of Despair (1934)

„Haven't people learned yet that the time of superficial intellectual games is over, that agony is infinitely more important than syllogism, that a cry of despair is more revealing than the most subtle thought, and that tears always have deeper roots than smiles?“

—  Emil M. Cioran

On the Heights of Despair (1934)

Despair, Cry, Time, Learning

„An aphorism? Fire without flames. Understandable that no one tries to warm himself at it.“

—  Emil M. Cioran, book The Trouble With Being Born

The Trouble With Being Born (1973)

Understanding

„The only subversive mind is the one that questions the obligation to exist; all the others, the anarchist at the top of the list, compromise with the established order.“

—  Emil M. Cioran

The New Gods (1969)

Question

„"You really should come to the house - one of these days we might die without having seen each other again." - "Since we have to die in any case, what's the use of seeing each other again?"“

—  Emil M. Cioran

Drawn and Quartered (1983)

Housing

„Erect I make a resolution; prone I revoke it.“

—  Emil M. Cioran

All Gall Is Divided (1952)

Previous

„Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Etiam egestas wisi a erat. Morbi imperdiet, mauris ac auctor dictum.“

Next 16 quotes...
Today anniversaries
Immanuel Kant photo
Immanuel Kant198
German philosopher 1724 - 1804
Erma Bombeck photo
Erma Bombeck64
When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope… 1927 - 1996
Robert Oppenheimer photo
Robert Oppenheimer25
American theoretical physicist and professor of physics 1904 - 1967
Rita Levi-Montalcini photo
Rita Levi-Montalcini7
Italian neurologist 1909 - 2012
Another 60 today anniversaries
Similar authors
José Ortega Y Gasset photo
José Ortega Y Gasset84
Spanish liberal philosopher and essayist
Paul Valéry photo
Paul Valéry84
French poet, essayist, and philosopher
George Santayana photo
George Santayana108
20th-century Spanish-American philosopher associated with P…
Martin Heidegger photo
Martin Heidegger69
German philosopher
Walter Benjamin photo
Walter Benjamin69
German literary critic, philosopher and social critic (1892…