emil cioran

“ Speech and silence. We feel safer with a madman who talks than with one who cannot open his mouth. ”

“ Knowledge subverts love: in proportion as we penetrate our secrets, we come to loathe our kind, precisely because they resemble us. ”

“ No one recovers from the disease of being born, a deadly wound if there ever was one. ”

“ One asks oneself, How can this be, and if it be, how can one still speak of finality and other such old wives' tales? Suffering moves me so much that I lose all my courage. I lose heart because I do not understand why there is suffering in the world. ”

“ I don't understand why we must do things in this world, why we must have friends and aspirations, hopes and dreams. Wouldn't it be better to retreat to a faraway corner of the world, where all its noise and complications would be heard no more? Then we could renounce culture and ambitions; we would lose everything and gain nothing; for what is there to be gained from this world? ”

“ We are so lonely in life that we must ask ourselves if the loneliness of dying is not a symbol of our human existence. ”

“ It is because we are all imposters that we endure each other. ”

“ I may find myself alone. But am I not already alone in this world from which I no longer expect anything ”

“ A decadent civilization compromises with its disease, cherishes the virus infecting it, loses its self-respect. ”

“ No one can enjoy freedom without trembling. ”