Quotes from Emil M. Cioran

A genre becomes universal when it seduces minds which have no reason to embrace it.

WÅ'aÅ›nie nasi najbli?si najchÄ™tniej kwestionujÄ… nasze zalety. Jest to reguÅ'a powszechna, nie uniknÄ…Å' jej nawet Budda. Najzacieklej wystÄ™powaÅ' przeciwko niemu jeden z jego kuzynów, dopiero zaÅ› pó?niej Mara, diabeÅ'.

The first thinker was, without a doubt, the first man obsessed by why. An unaccustomed mania, not at all contagious: rare indeed are those who suffer from it

Every anomaly seduces us, Life in the first place, that anomaly par excellence.

Everything which borders on torment wakens the psychologist in each of us

Whenever philosophers insinuate themselves into Letters, it is to exploit their confusion or to precipitate their collapse.

bütün kurtuluÅŸ öÄŸretilerinin kusuru, tamamlanmam??l???n iklimi olan ÅŸiiri ortadan kald?rmalar?d?r. ÅŸair, selamete ermeye özendiÄŸinde kendine ihanet etmiÅŸ olur: selamet ÅŸark?n?n ölümüdür...

A exista e un plagiat.

Un livre est un suicide différé.

Life seems good only to the madman

Bach was quarrelsome, litigious, self-serving, greedy for titles and honors, etc. So what! A musicologist listing the cantatas whose theme is death has remarked that no mortal ever had such a nostalgia for it. Which is all that counts. The rest has to do with biography.

Getting up with my head full of plans, I would be working, I was sure of it, all morning long. No sooner had I sat down at my desk than the odious, vile, and persuasive refrain: "What do you expect of this world?" stopped me short. And I returned, as usual, to my bed with the hope of finding some answer, of going back to sleep...

We make choices, decisions, as long as we keep to the surface of things; once we reach the depths, we can neither choose nor decide, we can do nothing but regret the surface...

It is a misfortune for an author to be understood.

An idea, a being, anything which becomes incarnate loses identity, turns grotesque.

Once we begin to want, we fall under the jurisdiction of the Devil.

I remember a place I have been only if I have had the luck to experience utter misery there.

L'heure du crime ne sonne pas en même temps pour tous les peuples. Ainsi s'explique la permanence de l'histoire.

Se, no momento de nosso nascimento, fôssemos tão conscientes como o somos ao sair da adolescência, é mais do que provável que aos cinco anos o suicídio fosse um fenômeno habitual ou mesmo uma questão de honorabilidade. Mas despertamos tarde demais: temos contra nós os anos fecundados unicamente pela presença dos instintos, que devem ficar estupefatos com as conclusões a que conduzem nossas meditações e decepções.

I looked for my salvation in the Utopia, but I have only found some solace in the Apocalypse.

Lucidity is the only vice which makes us free—free in a desert.

My weaknesses have spoiled my existence, but it is thanks to them that I exist

Can we imagine a city dweller who does not have the soul of a murderer?

Every form of haste, even toward the good, betrays some mental disorder.