Cioran > Quotes

“As the years go by, we form a gloomier picture of the future. [...] No, in fact, because the future has always been atrocious, since man can only remedy his ills by making them worse.”
― Cioran

“Exasperated with everyone. But I love to laugh. And I cannot laugh alone.”
― Cioran

“What about the one who can no longer glorify life or spirit ?”
― Cioran

“But I never cried, because the tears turned into thoughts as bitter as the tears.”
― Cioran

“I was about to go out when I looked at myself in the mirror. Suddenly, an unspeakable terror: who is this ? Impossible to recognize myself !”
― Cioran

“Why don't I kill myself? Because death disgusts me as much as life.”
― Cioran

“How easy it is to recommend joy to those who can be happy !”
― Cioran

“we lamented [...]. And then you realize that you can fall even further, [...] that it's possible to sink a little deeper”
― Cioran

“[…] As soon as I have to meet someone, a desire for isolation seizes me !”
― Cioran

“There are those who are condemned to savour only the poison of things, for whom every surprise is painful and every experience a new torture.”
― Cioran

“I don't know why we have to do anything down here, why we have to have friends and aspirations, hopes and dreams...”
― Cioran

“What does it matter if I torment myself, suffer or think ?”
― Cioran

“Tant qu'on vit au deçà du terrible, on trouve des mots pour l'exprimer ; dès qu'on le connaît du dedans, on n'en trouve plus aucun.”
― Cioran, The Trouble With Being Born

“They still lack the power to cure me of a horror older than my memory.”
― Cioran

“There's more confusion and chaos in me than the human soul can bear.”
― Cioran

“Citaat”
― Cioran

“When asked why the monks who followed him were so radiant, the Buddha replied that it was because they thought neither of the past nor of the future. One darkens, indeed, as soon as one thinks of either; and one darkens completely as soon as one thinks of both…”
― Cioran

“I just received a letter from a friend. He tells me he doesn’t believe a word I’ve written, ”because I know you well, and I know you’re cheerful.” […] No matter my state of mind, I have always managed to hide it. I don’t know if it’s modesty or a defense mechanism…”
― Cioran

“The bestiality of life has trampled and crushed me, clipped my wings in mid-flight and denied me the joys to which I once aspired.”
― Cioran

“Is it a latent sadness that these thoughts actualize and intensify ?”
― Cioran

“Suffering is an inner state of solitude, which nothing external can relieve.”
― Cioran

“كل ما لا يتفطر له القلب زائد عن الحاجة”
― Cioran, Anathemas and Admirations: Essays and Aphorisms

“The real and only misfortune: that of being born.”
― Cioran

“To remain stunned by one's own catastrophe, unable to think or act, crushed by icy darkness [...] is to reach the negative limit of life.”
― Cioran

“Insomnia is a vertiginous lucidity that would convert paradise into a place of torture.”
― Cioran

“Of course life is a torment to me, I cannot renounce it [...] I should say that I do not know why I live, nor why I do not cease to live.”
― Cioran

“To live alone means to want nothing more, to hope for nothing more from life. Death is the only surprise of solitude.”
― Cioran

“Sleep makes us forget the drama of life, its complications and obsessions; every waking moment is a new beginning and a new hope. [...] Insomnia, on the other hand, generates a feeling of agony, an incurable sadness...”
― Cioran

“F. J. R. : You once wrote : ” All my books are failed suicides. ”
Cioran : That’s true.”
― Cioran

“And how can you be happy when the obsession with madness tortures you day and night? Do they realize, those who propose joy at every turn, what the fear of imminent collapse and the constant torment of this terrible presentiment mean?”
― Cioran