Emile M. Cioran

Society is not a disease, it is a disaster. What a stupid miracle that one can live in it.

Woes and wonders of Power, that tonic hell, synthesis of poison and panacea.

What surrounds us we endure better for giving it a name - and moving on.

Jealousy - that jumble of secret worship and ostensible aversion.

Intelligence flourishes only in the ages when belief withers.

Life is possible only by the deficiencies of our imagination and memory.

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

To Live signifies to believe and hope - to lie and to lie to oneself.

Music is the refuge of souls ulcerated by happiness.

To act is to anchor in an imminent future, so imminent it becomes almost tangible to act is to feel you are consubstantial with that future.

What does the future, that half of time, matter to the man who is infatuated with eternity?

Negation is the mind's first freedom, yet a negative habit is fruitful only so long as we exert ourselves to overcome it, adapt it to our needs once acquired it can imprison us.

For you who no longer posses it, freedom is everything, for us who do, it is merely an illusion.

No one can enjoy freedom without trembling.

Isn't history ultimately the result of our fear of boredom?

Crime in full glory consolidates authority by the sacred fear it inspires.

The fear of being deceived is the vulgar version of the quest for Truth.

Life inspires more dread than death - it is life which is the great unknown.

The desire to die was my one and only concern to it I have sacrificed everything, even death.