“History shows that the thinkers who mounted on the top of the ladder of questions, who set their foot on the last rung, that of the absurd, have bequeathed to posterity only an example of sterility.”

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

A Short History of Decay (1949)

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Emil M. Cioran531

Romanian philosopher and essayist 1911–1995

Banana Yoshimoto book Kitchen

Source: Kitchen

“He taught us by example to place little emphasis on personal material gain…his aim was to bequeath to posterity the riches of his brain and the wealth of his soul.”

Epifanio de los Santos (1871–1928) Filipino politician

The Manila Tribune. April 19, 1928.
BALIW

“The mathematician has reached the highest rung on the ladder of human thought.”

H. Havelock Ellis (1859–1939) British physician, writer, and social reformer

Source: The Dance of Life http://www.gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0300671.txt (1923), Ch. 3

“It is not with a rush and a spring that we are to reach Christ's character, and attain to perfect saintship; but step by step, foot by foot, hand over hand, we are slowly and often painfully to mount the ladder that rests on earth, and rises to heaven.”

Thomas Guthrie (1803–1873) British divine

Source: The Way to Life: Sermons (1862), P. 192 (The Example of Christ).

“The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one's own country as a foreign land.”

G. K. Chesterton book Tremendous Trifles

Source: Tremendous Trifles (1909), Ch. XXXI: "The Riddle of the Ivy"

“Courage is the ladder on which all the other virtues mount. ”

Clare Boothe Luce (1903–1987) American writer, politician, ambassador, journalist and anti-Communist activist

“Every author really wants to have letters printed in the paper. Unable to make the grade, he drops down a rung of the ladder and writes novels.”

P.G. Wodehouse (1881–1975) English author

“We have done with Hope and Honour, we are lost to Love and Truth,
We are dropping down the ladder rung by rung,
And the measure of our torment is the measure of our youth.
God help us, for we knew the worst too young!”

Rudyard Kipling book Barrack-Room Ballads

Gentlemen-Rankers, Stanza 4.
Barrack-Room Ballads (1892, 1896)

“If faith, then new birth; if new birth, then sonship; if sonship, then "an heir of God, and a joint-heir with Christ." But if you have not got your foot upon the lowest round of the ladder, you will never come within sight of the blessed face of Him who stands at the top of it, and who looks down to you at this moment, saying to you, "My child, wilt thou not at this time cry unto me, 'Abba, Father?'"”

Alexander Maclaren (1826–1910) British minister

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 228.

“History shows that it is not only senseless and cruel, but also difficult to state who is a foreigner.”

Claudio Magris (1939) Italian scholar, translator and writer

Source: Danube: A Sentimental Journey from the Source to the Black Sea

“History shows that the thinkers who mounted on the top of the ladder of questions, who set their foot on the last rung, that of the absurd, have bequeathed to posterity only an example of sterility.”

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Emil M. Cioran531

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