Quotes from Emil M. Cioran

Nostalgia de um mundo sem "ideal", de uma agonia sem doutrina, de uma eternidade sem vida... O Paraíso... Mas não poderíamos existir um instante sem enganar-nos: o profeta em cada um de nós é o grão de loucura que nos faz prosperar em nosso vazio.

În cadrul naÅ£iunii, democraÅ£ia a dat naÅŸtere unei pluralit??i de formaÅ£ii divergente, care r?pesc evoluÅ£iei naÅ£ionale un sens convergent.

no reproach proceeding from men or gods can affect me: I have as good a conscience as if I had never existed.

If it is characteristic of the wise man to do nothing useless, no one will surpass me in wisdom: I do not even lower myself to useful things.

My mission is to suffer for all those who suffer without knowing it. I must pay for them, expiate their unconscious, their luck to be ignorant of how unhappy they are.

As long as you live on this side of the terrible, you will find words to express it; once you know it from inside, you will no longer find a single one.

What a notion, to place a clown like Diogenes in so lofty a niche!

Call it insensitivity or a passion for remorse, I have never undertaken to rescue what little Absolute this world contains.

Educating yourself not to leave traces is a moment-by-momcnt war against yourself, solely to prove that you could, if you chose, become a sage….

To be "happy" you must constantly bear in mind the miseries you have escaped. This would be a way for memory to redeem itself, since ordinarily it preserves only disasters, eager — and with what success! — to sabotage happiness.

Lucidity is the only vice which make us free - free in a desert.

An authentically chosen people, the Gypsies bear the responsibility for no event, for no institution. They have triumphed over the earth by their desire to found nothing upon it.

In order not to be overwhelmed by our accident, we convert even our name into an entity: how can we die when we are called Peter or Paul?

De la vida tenemos que hacer un soneto —o ahorcarnos.

Cine ÅŸi-a v?zut figura în ipostaza grotesc? nu se va putea uita niciodat?, fiindc? se va teme totdeauna de el însuÅŸi. Disperarea este urmat? de o neliniÅŸte extrem de chinuitoare. Åži ce face acest grotesc altceva decît s? actualizeze ÅŸi s? intensifice teama ÅŸi neliniÅŸtea?

Man is free, save for his depths.

Each of us is entitled to claim the forebears who suit him, who explain him in his own eyes. How often have I not changed ancestors!

Listening to Bach, one sees God come into being. His music generates divinity After a Bach oratorio, cantata, or passion, one feels that God must be. Otherwise, Bach's music would be only heartrending illusion. Theologians and philosophers wasted so many days and nights searching for proofs of his existence, ignoring the only valid one: Bach.

Indolence saves us from prolixity and thereby from the shamelessness inherent in production.

Hannibal's drama was to be born too soon; a few centuries later, he would have found Rome's gates open. The Empire was vacant, like Europe in our time.

The human being delivered to himself, without any partiality for elegance, is a monster.

When I torment myself a little too much for not working, I tell myself that I might just as well be dead and that then I would be working still less...

Toda participación en las agitaciones temporales es tiempo perdido y malgasto inútil. […]

How many times, in their heart of hearts, must they not envy the doctrinal offhandedness of their enemies! The leftist's despair is to battle in the name of principles that forbid him cynicism.