Tolerance - the function of an extinguished ardor - tolerance cannot seduce the young.
Emile M. Cioran

Torment, for some men, is a need, an appetite, and an accomplishment.
Emile M. Cioran

Truths begin by a conflict with the police - and end by calling them in.
Emile M. Cioran

Under each formula lies a corpse.
Emile M. Cioran

We are afraid of the enormity of the possible.
Emile M. Cioran

We are born to Exist, not to know, to be, not to assert ourselves.
Emile M. Cioran

We define only out of despair, we must have a formula... to give a facade tot he void.
Emile M. Cioran

We derive our vitality from our store of madness.
Emile M. Cioran

We die in proportion to the words we fling around us.
Emile M. Cioran

We inhabit a language rather than a country.
Emile M. Cioran

We interest others by the misfortune we spread around us.
Emile M. Cioran

We understand God by everything in ourselves that is fragmentary, incomplete, and inopportune.
Emile M. Cioran

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

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

What pride to discover that nothing belongs to you - what a revelation.
Emile M. Cioran

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

What would be left of our tragedies if an insect were to present us his?
Emile M. Cioran

When we cannot be delivered from ourselves, we delight in devouring ourselves.
Emile M. Cioran

Who Rebels? Who rises in arms? Rarely the slave, but almost always the oppressor turned slave.
Emile M. Cioran

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