“A man does not kill himself, as is commonly supposed, in a fit of madness but rather in a fit of unendurable lucidity, in a paroxysm which may, if so desired, be identified with madness; for an excessive perspicacity, carried to the limit and of which one longs to be rid at all costs, exceeds the context of reason.”
The New Gods (1969)
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Emil M. Cioran 531
Romanian philosopher and essayist 1911–1995Related quotes

Light (1919), Ch. XVI - De Profundis Clamavi
Context: All is madness. And there is no one who will dare to rise and say that all is not madness, and that the future does not so appear — as fatal and unchangeable as a memory.
But how many men will there be who will dare, in face of the universal deluge which will be at the end as it was in the beginning, to get up and cry "No!" who will pronounce the terrible and irrefutable issue: —
"No! The interests of the people and the interests of all their present overlords are not the same.

“A man who does not have something for which he is willing to die is not fit to live.”

Source: Books, What's So Great about Christianity (2007), Ch. 23

Small Houses: Their Economic Design and Construction (1922)