“By all evidence we are in the world to do nothing.”

—  Emil M. Cioran , book A Short History of Decay

A Short History of Decay (1949)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "By all evidence we are in the world to do nothing." by Emil M. Cioran?
Emil M. Cioran photo
Emil M. Cioran 531
Romanian philosopher and essayist 1911–1995

Related quotes

Joss Whedon photo

“If nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do.”

Joss Whedon (1964) American director, writer, and producer for television and film

Tim Minear, in Epiphany", episode 16 of season 2 of Angel; also mentioned in the DVD commentary for the Firefly episode, "Objects in Space".
Misattributed

Alan Watts photo

“We say in popular speech that we come into this world, but we do nothing of the kind. We come out of it.”

Alan Watts (1915–1973) British philosopher, writer and speaker

In the same way as the fruit comes out of the tree, the egg from the chicken, and the baby from the womb, we are symptomatic of the universe. Just as in the retina there are myriads of little nerve endings, we are the nerve endings of the universe.
Source: Ways of Liberation: Essays and Lectures on the Transformation of Self (1983), p. 25

Cyrano de Bergerac photo

“Do you say it is incomprehensible that there is nothingness in the world and that we are partly composed of nothing?”

Cyrano de Bergerac (1619–1655) French novelist, dramatist, scientist and duelist

The Other World (1657)
Context: Do you say it is incomprehensible that there is nothingness in the world and that we are partly composed of nothing? Well, why not? Is not the whole world enveloped by nothingness? Since you concede that point, admit as well that it is just as easy for the world to have nothingness within as without.

Jorge Luis Borges photo

“There is nothing in the world that is not mysterious, but the mystery is more evident in certain things than in others: in the sea, in the eyes of the elders, in the color yellow, and in music.”

Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, and a key figure in Spanish language literature
Mechthild of Magdeburg photo

“What we know is as nothing, if we do not love God properly in all things.”

Mechthild of Magdeburg (1210–1282) German mystic

[Norris, K., The Cloister Walk, Penguin Publishing Group, 1997, 978-1-101-21566-1, http://books.google.com/books?id=pZkLNwpYcJ0C&pg=PT115]

E.E. Cummings photo

“nothing is quite as easy as using words like somebody else. We all of us do exactly this nearly all of the time — and whenever we do it, we are not poets.”

E.E. Cummings (1894–1962) American poet

A Poet's Advice (1958)

Richard Bertrand Spencer photo

“Ours, too, should be a declaration of difference and distance—"We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created unequal." In the wake of the old world, this will be our proposition.”

Richard Bertrand Spencer (1978) American white supremacist
Ani DiFranco photo

“i do it for the joy it brings
because i'm a joyful girl
because the world owes me nothing
and we owe each other the world”

Ani DiFranco (1970) musician and activist
Michael Crichton photo

“Do you know what we call opinion in the absence of evidence? We call it prejudice.”

Michael Crichton book State of Fear

Source: State of Fear

“It has nothing to do with belief. It's a fact. It's the truth! As a scientist, I know it's true because science is based on skepticism. We consider all possibilities equally and decide on facts based on what stands up to empirical evidence. Which is how I know that you gomers are absolutely and totally wrong.”

Orl Unho (1976)

Sex Ed (2005)

Related topics