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So long as man is protected by madness he functions and flourishes, but when he frees himself from the fruitful tyranny of fixed ideas, he is lost, ruined.

— Emil Cioran A Short History of Decay (1949)

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More quotes by Emil Cioran

The poor, by thinking unceasingly of money, reach the point of losing the spiritual advantages of non-possession, thereby sinking as low as the rich.

The Trouble With Being Born (1973)

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

The Fall Into Time (1964)

Love, a tacit agreement between two unhappy parties to overestimate each other.

The Fall Into Time (1964)

There is only this swarm of dying creatures stricken with longevity, all the more hateful in that they are so good at organizing their agony.

The Fall Into Time (1964)

It is not worth the bother of killing yourself, since you always kill yourself too late.

The Trouble With Being Born (1973)

All Emil Cioran quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Emil Cioran (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.