374 Quotes by Emile M. Cioran

I do nothing, granted. But I see the hours pass - which is better than trying to fill them.

A great step forward was made the day men understood that in order to torment one another more efficiently they would have to gather together, to organize themselves into a society

What is that one crucifixion compared to the daily kind any insomniac endures?

Consciousness is much more than the thorn, it is the dagger in the flesh.

What do you do from morning to night?" "I endure myself.

At this very moment, I am suffering—as we say in French, j’ai mal. This event, crucial for me, is nonexistent, even inconceivable for anyone else, for everyone else. Except for God, if that word can have a meaning.

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 would not be interested in human beings if we did not have the hope of someday meeting someone worse off than ourselves.

Just as ecstasy purifies you of the particular and the contingent, leaving nothing except light and darkness, so insomnia kills off the multiplicity and diversity of the world, leaving you prey to your private obsessions.