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Quotes from The Book of Delusions — Emil Cioran

1911–1995 France

← All quotes by Emil Cioran

14 quotes

To suffer is the great modality of taking the world seriously.

The Book of Delusions (1936)

Time is heavy sometimes; imagine how heavy eternity must be.

The Book of Delusions (1936)

I don't understand how people can believe in God, even when I myself think of him everyday.

The Book of Delusions (1936)

What am I, other than a chance in the infinite probabilities of not having been!

The Book of Delusions (1936)

Everyone must destroy their life. According to the way they do it, they're either triumphants or failures.

The Book of Delusions (1936)

All the concessions we make to Eros are holes in our desire for the absolute.

The Book of Delusions (1936)

Nostalgia, more than anything, gives us the shudder of our own imperfection.

The Book of Delusions (1936)

That fear which gives birth to thoughts, and the fear of thoughts...

The Book of Delusions (1936)

All philosophers should end their days at Pythia's feet. There is only one philosophy, that of unique moments.

The Book of Delusions (1936)

A regret understood by no one: the regret to be a pessimist. It's not easy to be on the wrong foot with life

The Book of Delusions (1936)

Detachment from the world as an attachment to the ego... Who can realize the detachment in which you are as far away from yourself as you are from the world?

The Book of Delusions (1936)

Only thoughts that are randomly born die. The other thoughts we carry with us without knowing them. They have abandoned themselves to forgetfulness so that they can be with us all the time.

The Book of Delusions (1936)

The fear of your own solitude, of its vast surface and its infinity... Remorse is the voice of solitude. And what does this whispering voice say? Everything in us that is not human anymore.

The Book of Delusions (1936)

No one should forget: Eros alone can fulfill life; knowledge, never. Only Eros makes sense; knowledge is empty infinity; — for thoughts, there is always time; life has its time; there is no thought that comes too late; any desire can become a regret.

The Book of Delusions (1936)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Emil Cioran (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.