374 Quotes by Emile M. Cioran

"The Holy Ghost," Luther instructs us, "is not a skeptic." Not everyone can be, and that is really too bad.

Nothing proves that we are more than nothing.

On Creating — What we crave, what we want to see in others eyes, is that servile expression, an unconcealed infatuation with our gestures.

True contact between beings is established only by mute presence, by apparent non-communication, by that mysterious and wordless exchange which resembles inward prayer.

Vague a l'ame — melancholy yearning for the end of the world.

Man starts over again everyday, in spite of all he knows, against all he knows.

That history just unfolds, independently of a specified direction, of a goal, no one is willing to admit.

Only one endowed with restless vitality is susceptible to pessimism. You become a pessimist-a demonic, elemental, bestial pessimist-only when life has been defeated many times in its fight against depression.

One cannot live without motives. I have no motives left, and I am living.