E. M. Cioran
22 quotations
There is no means of proving it is preferable to be than not to be.
To want fame is to prefer dying scorned than forgotten.
Every thought derives from a thwarted sensation.
God: a disease we imagine we are cured of because no one dies of it nowadays.
A civilization is destroyed only when its gods are destroyed.
No one can keep his grieves in their prime; they use themselves up.
To exist is a habit I do not despair of acquiring.
Progress is the injustice each generation commits with regard to its predecessors.
The fact that life has no meaning is a reason to live --moreover, the only one.
Great persecutors are recruited among martyrs whose heads haven't been cut off.
The mind is the result of the torments the flesh undergoes or inflicts upon itself.
Music is the refuge of souls ulcerated by happiness.
Sperm is a bandit in its pure state.
Reason is a whore, surviving by simulation, versatility, and shamelessness.
If we could see ourselves as others see us, we would vanish on the spot.
Speech and silence. We feel safer with a madman who talks than with one who cannot open his mouth.
It is not worth the bother of killing yourself, since you always kill yourself too late.
Torment, for some men, is a need, an appetite, and an accomplishment.
What would be left of our tragedies if an insect were to present us his?
We derive our vitality from our store of madness.
Consciousness is much more than the thorn, it is the dagger in the flesh.
Criticism is a misconception: we must read not to understand others but to understand ourselves.