Emile M. Cioran Quotes and Sayings
- 1
A civilization is destroyed only when its gods are destroyed. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 2
A distant enemy is always preferable to one at the gate. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 3
A golden rule: to leave an incomplete image of oneself. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 4
A marvel that has nothing to offer, democracy is at once a nation's paradise and its tomb. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 5
A people represents not so much an aggregate of ideas and theories as of obsessions. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 6
A sudden silence in the middle of a conversation suddenly brings us back to essentials: it reveals how dearly we must pay for the invention of speech. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
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Ambition is a drug that makes its addicts potential madmen. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 8
Anyone can escape into sleep, we are all geniuses when we dream, the butcher's the poet's equal there. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 9
Anyone who speaks in the name of others is always an imposter. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 10
By all evidence we are in the world to do nothing. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 11
Chaos is rejecting all you have learned, Chaos is being yourself. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 12
Consciousness is much more than the thorn, it is the dagger in the flesh. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 13
Crime in full glory consolidates authority by the sacred fear it inspires. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 14
Criticism is a misconception: we must read not to understand others but to understand ourselves. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 15
Each concession we make is accompanied by an inner diminution of which we are not immediately conscious. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 16
Ennui is the echo in us of time tearing itself apart. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 17
Every thought derives from a thwarted sensation. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 18
Everything is pathology, except for indifference. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 19
For you who no longer posses it, freedom is everything, for us who do, it is merely an illusion. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 20
Glory - once achieved, what is it worth? Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 21
God - a disease we imagine we are cured of because no one dies of it nowadays. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 22
Great persecutors are recruited among martyrs whose heads haven't been cut off. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 23
I foresee the day when we shall read nothing but telegrams and prayers. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 24
I have no nationality - the best possible status for an intellectual. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 25
I'm simply an accident. Why take it all so seriously? Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 26
If we could see ourselves as others see us, we would vanish on the spot. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 27
If, at the limit, you can rule without crime, you cannot do so without injustices. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 28
Imaginary pains are by far the most real we suffer, since we feel a constant need for them and invent them because there is no way of doing without them. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 29
Impossible to spend sleepless nights and accomplish anything: if, in my youth, my parents had not financed my insomnias, I should surely have killed myself. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 30
In a republic, that paradise of debility, the politician is a petty tyrant who obeys the laws. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 31
In every man sleeps a prophet, and when he wakes there is a little more evil in the world. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 32
In order to have the stuff of a tyrant, a certain mental derangement is necessary. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 33
Intelligence flourishes only in the ages when belief withers. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 34
Isn't history ultimately the result of our fear of boredom? Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 35
It is because we are all imposters that we endure each other. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 36
It is not worth the bother of killing yourself, since you always kill yourself too late. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 37
Jealousy - that jumble of secret worship and ostensible aversion. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 38
Life creates itself in delirium and is undone in ennui. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 39
Life inspires more dread than death - it is life which is the great unknown. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 40
Life is possible only by the deficiencies of our imagination and memory. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 41
Man must vanquish himself, must do himself violence, in order to perform the slightest action untainted by evil. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 42
Man starts over again everyday, in spite of all he knows, against all he knows. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 43
Music is the refuge of souls ulcerated by happiness. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 44
My mission is to kill time, and time's to kill me in its turn. How comfortable one is among murderers. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 45
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. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 46
No one can enjoy freedom without trembling. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 47
No one recovers from the disease of being born, a deadly wound if there ever was one. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 48
Nothing is so wearing as the possession or abuse of liberty. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 49
Nothing proves that we are more than nothing. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 50
One does not inhabit a country; one inhabits a language. That is our country, our fatherland - and no other. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 51
One hardly saves a world without ruling it. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 52
Our first intuitions are the true ones. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 53
Our works, whatever they may be, derive from our incapacity to kill or to kill ourselves. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 54
Philosophers write for professors; thinkers for writers. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 55
Philosophy: Impersonal anxiety; refuge among anemic ideas. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 56
Progress is the injustice each generation commits with regard to its predecessors. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 57
Reason is a whore, surviving by simulation, versatility, and shamelessness. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 58
Revenge is not always sweet, once it is consummated we feel inferior to our victim. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 59
Since all life is futility, then the decision to exist must be the most irrational of all. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 60
Skepticism is the sadism of embittered souls. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 61
So long as man is protected by madness - he functions - and flourishes. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 62
Society is not a disease, it is a disaster. What a stupid miracle that one can live in it. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 63
Speech and silence. We feel safer with a madman who talks than with one who cannot open his mouth. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 64
Sperm is a bandit in its pure state. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 65
The desire to die was my one and only concern; to it I have sacrificed everything, even death. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 66
The fact that life has no meaning is a reason to live - moreover, the only one. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 67
The fanatic is incorruptible: if he kills for an idea, he can just as well get himself killed for one; in either case, tyrant or martyr, he is a monster. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 68
The fear of being deceived is the vulgar version of the quest for Truth. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 69
The limit of every pain is an even greater pain. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 70
The mind is the result of the torments the flesh undergoes or inflicts upon itself. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 71
The more we try to rest ourselves from our Egos, the deeper we sink into it. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 72
The obsession with suicide is characteristic of the man who can neither live nor die, and whose attention never swerves from this double impossibility. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 73
The task of the solitary man is to be even more solitary. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 74
The Universal view melts things into a blur. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 75
There is no means of proving it is preferable to be than not to be. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 76
To act is to anchor in the imminent future. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 77
To exist is a habit I do not despair of acquiring. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 78
To Live signifies to believe and hope - to lie and to lie to oneself. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 79
To venture upon an undertaking of any kind, even the most insignificant, is to sacrifice to envy. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 80
To want fame is to prefer dying scorned than forgotten. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 81
Tolerance - the function of an extinguished ardor - tolerance cannot seduce the young. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 82
Torment, for some men, is a need, an appetite, and an accomplishment. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 83
Truths begin by a conflict with the police - and end by calling them in. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 84
Under each formula lies a corpse. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 85
We are afraid of the enormity of the possible. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 86
We are born to Exist, not to know, to be, not to assert ourselves. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 87
We define only out of despair, we must have a formula... to give a facade tot he void. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 88
We derive our vitality from our store of madness. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 89
We die in proportion to the words we fling around us. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 90
We inhabit a language rather than a country. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 91
We interest others by the misfortune we spread around us. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 92
We understand God by everything in ourselves that is fragmentary, incomplete, and inopportune. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 93
We would not be interested in human beings if we did not have the hope of someday meeting someone worse off than ourselves. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 94
What does the future, that half of time, matter to the man who is infatuated with eternity? Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 95
What pride to discover that nothing belongs to you - what a revelation. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 96
What surrounds us we endure better for giving it a name - and moving on. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 97
What would be left of our tragedies if an insect were to present us his? Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 98
When we cannot be delivered from ourselves, we delight in devouring ourselves. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 99
Who Rebels? Who rises in arms? Rarely the slave, but almost always the oppressor turned slave. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 100
Woes and wonders of Power, that tonic hell, synthesis of poison and panacea. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 101
Word - that invisible dagger. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 102
Write books only if you are going to say in them the things you would never dare confide to anyone. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑
- 103
You are done for - a living dead man - not when you stop loving but stop hating. Hatred preserves: in it, in its chemistry, resides the mystery of life. Emile M. Cioran | Refcard PDF ↑