238 Quotes by Emil M. Cioran

Paganism is the deepening of appearances, while saintliness is the sickness of depths.

By a certain age, we should change names and hide out somewhere, lost to the world, in no danger of seeing friends or enemies again, leading the peaceful life of an overworked malefactor.

The only thing the young should be taught is that there is virtually nothing to be hoped for from life. One dreams of a Catalogue of Disappointments which would include all the disillusionments reserved for each and every one of us to be posted in the schools.

I infallibly discern a flaw in all those who are interested in the same things as myself. . . .

Fanaticism is the death of conversation. We do not gossip with a candidate for martyrdom. What are we to say to someone who refuses to penetrate our reasons and who, the moment we do not bow to his, would rather die than yield? Give us dilettantes and sophists, who at least espouse all reasons...

Conversation is fruitful only between minds given to consolidating their perplexities.

The feeling of being ten thousand years behind, or ahead, of the others, of belonging to the beginnings or to the end of humanity...

I feel completely detached from any country, any group. I am a metaphysically displaced person.

I am stirred, even overwhelmed each time I happen upon an innocent person. Where does he come from? What is he after? Doesn't such an apparition herald some disaster? It is a very special disturbance we suffer in the presence of someone there is no way of calling our kind.