Show me one thing here on earth which has begun well and which has not ended badly.
Quotes from A Short History of Decay — Emil Cioran
1911–1995 France
56 quotes
Anyone who speaks in the name of others is always an impostor.
A Short History of Decay (1949)
Life inspires more dread than death — it is life which is the great unknown.
A Short History of Decay (1949)
History proves nothing because it contains everything.
A Short History of Decay (1949)
By all evidence we are in the world to do nothing.
A Short History of Decay (1949)
A Short History of Decay (1949)
In a single second we do away with all seconds; God himself could not do as much.
A Short History of Decay (1949)
Man starts over again everyday, in spite of all he knows, against all he knows.
A Short History of Decay (1949)
Life is possible only by the deficiencies of our imagination and memory.
A Short History of Decay (1949)
At different degrees, everything is pathology, except for indifference.
A Short History of Decay (1949)
To Live signifies to believe and hope — to lie and to lie to oneself.
A Short History of Decay (1949)
Vague a l'ame — melancholy yearning for the end of the world.
A Short History of Decay (1949)
Life creates itself in delirium and is undone in ennui.
A Short History of Decay (1949)
Ennui is the echo in us of time tearing itself apart.
A Short History of Decay (1949)
Nothing proves that we are more than nothing.
A Short History of Decay (1949)
Thought is as much a lie as love or faith.
A Short History of Decay (1949)
The true hero fights and dies in the name of his destiny, and not in the name of a belief.
A Short History of Decay (1949)
Truths begin by a conflict with the police — and end by calling them in.
A Short History of Decay (1949)
Espousing the melancholy of ancient symbols, I would have freed myself.
A Short History of Decay (1949)
Why do you lack the strength to escape the obligation to breathe?
A Short History of Decay (1949)
Attribution
Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Emil Cioran (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.