Quotes by Emil Cioran

About Emil Cioran:

Emil Michel Cioran was a Romanian philosopher and essayist, who published works in both Romanian and French. Cioran was born in R??inari, Sibiu County, which was part of Austria-Hungary at the time. His first French book, A Short History of Decay, was awarded the prestigious Rivarol Prize in 1950. It was the only book for which he accepted an award given to him, claiming that it would have been insolent of him to refuse it. The Latin Quarter of Paris was his permanent residence and he lived much of his life in isolation with his partner Simone Boué.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Thinking must never submit itself, neither to a dogma, nor to a party, nor to a passion, nor to an interest, nor to a preconceived idea, nor to whatever it may be, if not to facts themselves, because, for it, to submit would be to cease to be.

Emil Cioran

Il ne fait aucun doute pour moi que la sagesse est le but principal de la vie et c'est pourquoi je reviens toujours aux stoïciens. Ils ont atteint la sagesse, on ne peut donc plus les appeler des philosophes au sens propre du terme. De mon point de ...

Emil Cioran

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

Emil Cioran

In numele si sub teroarea ei (plictiselii, n.m.) parasesc oamenii caminul si moartea agreabila legata de el si se avanta in lume, spre a muri undeva fara acoperis si fara lacrimi; adolescentii se gandesc la sinucideri in zile infinite de primavara, i...

Emil Cioran

However much I have frequented the mystics, deep down I have always sided with the Devil; unable to equal him in power, I have tried to be worthy of him, at least, in insolence, acrimony, arbitrariness and caprice.

Emil Cioran

I saw that philosophy had no power to make my life more bearable. Thus I lost my belief in philosophy.

Emil Cioran

I lost my sleep, and this is the greatest tragedy that can befall someone. It is much worse than sitting in prison.

Emil Cioran

One should live and die where one was born... I've been bored everywhere I went. What was the point of leaving Coasta Boacu?

Emil Cioran

The capital phenomenon, the most catastrophic disaster, is uninterrupted sleeplessness, that nothingness without release.

Emil Cioran

Insomnia is a vertiginous lucidity that can convert paradise itself into a place of torture.

Emil Cioran

Ambition is a drug that turns it's addicts into potential madmen.

Emil Cioran

Whenever I happen to be in a city of any size, I marvel that riots do not break out everyday: Massacres, unspeakable carnage, a doomsday chaos. How can so many human beings coexist in a space so confined without hating each other to death?

Emil Cioran

The fact that life has no meaning is a reason to live --moreover, the only one.

Emil Cioran

I am the beast with a contorted grin, contracting down to illusion and dilating toward infinity, both growing and dying, delightfully suspended between hope for nothing and despair of everything, brought up among perfumes and poisons, consumed with l...

Emil Cioran

The sense that everything is going wrong has existed in every era, and rightly so since men have found no greater pleasure than in inventing new ways to make each other miserable.

Emil Cioran

For the normal man, life is an undisputed reality; only the sick man is delighted by life and praises it so that he won't collapse.

Emil Cioran

Tristetea, ca si suferinta, ne revela existenta, deoarece în ele avem în constiinta separatia noastra de lumea obiectiva si nelinistea care da un caracter tragic vietuirii în existenta. Daca ar exista un zeu al tristetii, lui nu i-ar putea creste ...

Emil Cioran

Think of God and not religion, of ecstasy and not mysticism. The difference between the theoretician of faith and the believer is as great as between the psychiatrist and the psychotic.

Emil Cioran

We rightly scorn those who have no made use of their defects, who have not exploited their deficiencies, and have not been enriched by their losses, as we despise any man who does not suffer at being a man or simply at being. Hence no graver insult c...

Emil Cioran

Cheia pentru inexplicabilul soartei noastre este setea de nefericire, adîncă şi tainică şi mai durabilă ca dorinţa zvăpăiată de fericire. De-ar predomina aceasta, cum am lămuri îndepărtarea vertiginoasă de rai şi tragedia ca o condiţi...

Emil Cioran

It is an understatement to say that in this society injustices abound: In truth it is itself the quintessence of injustice.

Emil Cioran

Author Bio

  • NameEmil Cioran
  • DescriptionRomanian philosopher and essayist
  • BornApril 8, 1911
  • DiedJune 20, 1995
  • CountryRomania
  • ProfessionPhilosopher; Author