374 Quotes by Emile M. Cioran

Who Rebels? Who rises in arms? Rarely the slave, but almost always the oppressor turned slave.

He who has never envied the vegetable has missed the human drama.

If we had the courage to confront the doubts we timidly conceive about ourselves, none of us would utter an 'I' without shame.

Philosophy is a corrective against sadness. Yet there still are people who believe in the profundity of philosophy!

True moral elegance consists in the art of disguising one's victories as defeats.

You are done for - a living dead man - not when you stop loving but stop hating. Hatred preserves: in it, in its chemistry, resides the mystery of life.

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?

What a pity that 'nothingness' has been devalued by an abuse of it made by philosophers unworthy of it!

What to think of other people? I ask myself this question each time I make a new acquaintance. So strange does it seem to me that we exist, and that we consent to exist.