Emil Cioran Quotes

Emil Cioran

Profession : Philosopher

Birth : April 8, 1911

So long as man is protected by madness - he functions - and flourishes.

Emil Cioran

To exist is a habit I do not despair of acquiring.

Emil Cioran

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

Emil Cioran

A distant enemy is always preferable to one at the gate.

Emil Cioran

Nothing is so wearing as the possession or abuse of liberty.

Emil Cioran

Tolerance - the function of an extinguished ardor - tolerance cannot seduce the young.

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

We derive our vitality from our store of madness.

Emil Cioran

We define only out of despair, we must have a formula... to give a facade tot he void.

Emil Cioran

By all evidence we are in the world to do nothing.

Emil Cioran

Revenge is not always sweet, once it is consummated we feel inferior to our victim.

Emil Cioran

Everything is pathology, except for indifference.

Emil Cioran

To venture upon an undertaking of any kind, even the most insignificant, is to sacrifice to envy.

Emil Cioran

Man must vanquish himself, must do himself violence, in order to perform the slightest action untainted by evil.

Emil Cioran

Philosophers write for professors; thinkers for writers.

Emil Cioran

Negation is the mind's first freedom, yet a negative habit is fruitful only so long as we exert ourselves to overcome it, adapt it to our needs; once acquired it can imprison us.

Emil Cioran

Each concession we make is accompanied by an inner diminution of which we are not immediately conscious.

Emil Cioran

What pride to discover that nothing belongs to you - what a revelation.

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

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

Emil Cioran