Quotes from book
A Short History of Decay

Emil M. Cioran Original title Précis de décomposition (French, 1949)
Emil M. Cioran photo

“Lord, give me the capacity of never praying, spare me the insanity of all worship, let this temptation of love pass from me which would deliver me forever unto You. Let the void spread between my heart and heaven! I have no desire to people my deserts by Your presence, to tyrannize my nights by Your light, to dissolve my Siberias beneath Your sun.”

Emil M. Cioran book A Short History of Decay

A Short History of Decay (1949)

Emil M. Cioran photo

“At different degrees, everything is pathology, except for indifference.”

Emil M. Cioran book A Short History of Decay

A Short History of Decay (1949)

Emil M. Cioran photo

“Irons and the unbreathable air of this world strip us of everything, except the freedom to kill ourselves; and this freedom grants us a strength and pride to triumph over the loads which overwhelm us.”

Emil M. Cioran book A Short History of Decay

A Short History of Decay (1949)

Emil M. Cioran photo

“Born in a prison, with burdens on our shoulders and our thoughts, we could not reach the end of a single day if the possibilities of ending it all did not incite us to begin the next day all over again.”

Emil M. Cioran book A Short History of Decay

A Short History of Decay (1949)

Emil M. Cioran photo

“Once man loses his faculty of indifference he becomes a potential murderer; once he transforms his idea into a god the consequences are incalculable. We kill only in the name of a god or of his counterfeits: the excesses provoked by the goddess Reason, by the concept of nation, class, or race are akin to those of the Inquisition or of the Reformation.”

Emil M. Cioran book A Short History of Decay

A Short History of Decay (1949)

Emil M. Cioran photo

“His power to adore is responsible for all his crimes: a man who loves a god unduly forces other men to love his god, eager to exterminate them if they refuse.”

Emil M. Cioran book A Short History of Decay

A Short History of Decay (1949)

Emil M. Cioran photo

“You are forgiven everything provided you have a trade, a subtitle to your name, a seal on your nothingness.”

Emil M. Cioran book A Short History of Decay

A Short History of Decay (1949)

Emil M. Cioran photo

“Why do you lack the strength to escape the obligation to breathe?”

Emil M. Cioran book A Short History of Decay

A Short History of Decay (1949)

Emil M. Cioran photo

“By capitulating to life, this world has betrayed nothingness.... I resign from movement, and from my dreams. Absence! You shall be my sole glory.... Let "desire" be forever stricken from the dictionary, and from the soul! I retreat before the dizzying farce of tomorrows. And if I still cling to a few hopes, I have lost forever the faculty of hoping.”

Emil M. Cioran book A Short History of Decay

A Short History of Decay (1949)
Variant: By capitulating to life, this world has betrayed nothingness... I resign from movement, and from my dreams. Absence! You shall be my sole glory... Let “desire” be forever stricken from the dictionary, and from the soul! I retreat before the dizzying farce of tomorrows. And if I still cling to a few hopes, I have lost forever the faculty of hoping.

Emil M. Cioran photo

“As incompetent in life as in death, I loathe myself and in this loathing I dream of another life, another death. And for having sought to be a sage such as never was, I am only a madman among the mad.”

Emil M. Cioran book A Short History of Decay

A Short History of Decay (1949)

Emil M. Cioran photo

“To repeat to yourself a thousand times a day: 'Nothing on Earth has any worth,' to keep finding yourself at the same point, to circle stupidly as a top, eternally…”

Emil M. Cioran book A Short History of Decay

A Short History of Decay (1949)

Emil M. Cioran photo

“Truths begin by a conflict with the police — and end by calling them in.”

Emil M. Cioran book A Short History of Decay

A Short History of Decay (1949)

Emil M. Cioran photo

“Even when he turns from religion, man remains subject to it; depleting himself to create false gods, he then feverishly adopts them; his need for fiction, for mythology triumphs over evidence and absurdity alike.”

Emil M. Cioran book A Short History of Decay

A Short History of Decay (1949)

Emil M. Cioran photo

“Since it is difficult to approve the reasons people invoke, each time we leave one of our 'fellow men', the question which comes to mind is invariably the same: how does he keep from killing himself?”

Emil M. Cioran book A Short History of Decay

A Short History of Decay (1949)

Emil M. Cioran photo

“Nothing surpasses the pleasures of idleness: even if the end of the world were to come, I would not leave my bed at an ungodly hour.”

Emil M. Cioran book A Short History of Decay

A Short History of Decay (1949)

Emil M. Cioran photo

“Society is not a disease, it is a disaster. What a stupid miracle that one can live in it.”

Emil M. Cioran book A Short History of Decay

A Short History of Decay (1949)

Emil M. Cioran photo

“No one has the audacity to exclaim: “I don’t want to do anything!” —we are more indulgent with a murderer than with a mind emancipated from actions.”

Emil M. Cioran book A Short History of Decay

A Short History of Decay (1949)