stevemju > stevemju's Quotes

“He dreams he is happy; that his corporeal nature has changed; or at least that he has flown off upon a purple cloud of another sphere peopled by beings of the same kind as himself. Alas! May his illusion last till dawn’s awakening! He dreams the flowers dance round him in a ring like immense demented garlands, and impregnate him with their balmy perfumes while he sings a hymn of love, locked in the arms of a magically beautiful human being. But it is merely twilight mist he embraces, and when he wakes their arms will no longer be entwined. Awaken not, hermaphrodite. Do not wake yet, I beg you. Why will you not believe me? Sleep … sleep forever. May your breast heave while pursuing the chimerical hope of happiness — that I allow you; but do not open your eyes. Ah! do not open your eyes.”
― Comte de Lautréamont, Maldoror and the Complete Works

“Is it possible that existence is our exile and nothingness our home?”
― Emil Cioran, Tears and Saints

“I am not well; I could have built the Pyramids with the effort it takes me to cling on to life and reason.”
― Franz Kafka, Letters to Felice

“I have no philosophy in which I can move like a fish in water or a bird on the wing. All I have is an endless struggle, every second of my life, between false consolations that only add to my feeling of powerlessness and deepen my despair, and true consolations that bring me momentary freedom. I should probably say the true consolation, because for me only one exists: the one that allows me to know myself as a free human being, within my own boundaries, untouchable.”
― Stig Dagerman, Notre besoin de consolation est impossible à rassasier

“I suffer from life and from other people. I can’t look at reality face to face. Even the sun discourages and depresses me. Only at night and all alone, withdrawn, forgotten and lost, with no connection to anything real or useful — only then do I find myself and feel comforted.”
― Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet

“As far as I am concerned, I resign from humanity. I no longer want to be, nor can still be, a man. What should I do? Work for a social and political system, make a girl miserable? Hunt for weaknesses in philosophical systems, fight for moral and esthetic ideals? It’s all too little. I renounce my humanity even though I may find myself alone. But am I not already alone in this world from which I no longer expect anything?”
― Emil Cioran, On the Heights of Despair

“Qu'on le prenne de la façon qu'on veut, il faut bien y réfléchir, de nos jours, avant de prendre le métier de poète, car on ne compte plus que bien peu de fous, et il y a une telle pléthore d'esprits raisonnables qu'ils peuvent à eux seuls investir toutes les disciplines, y compris celle de la poésie.”
― Ernst August Friedrich Klingemann, The Nightwatches of Bonaventura

“Quand la conscience parviendra à surplomber tous nos secrets, quand de notre malheur sera évacué le dernier vestige de mystère, aurons-nous encore un reste de fièvre et d'exaltation pour contempler la ruine de l'existence et de la poésie ?”
― Emil M. Cioran, A Short History of Decay

“Race stupide et idiote ! Tu te repentiras de te conduire ainsi. C'est moi qui te le dis. Tu t'en repentiras, va! Tu t'en repentiras. Ma poésie ne consistera qu'à attaquer, par tous les moyens, l'homme, cette bête fauve, et le Créateur, qui n'aurait pas dû engendrer une pareille vermine. Les volumes s'entasseront sur les volumes, jusqu'à la fin de ma vie, et cependant l'on n'y verra que cette seule idée, toujours présente à ma conscience !”
― Comte de Lautréamont, Les Chants de Maldoror