Emil Cioran Quotes

The more we try to wrest ourselves from our ego, the deeper we sink into it.

Emil Cioran

A distant enemy is always preferable to one at the gate.

Emil Cioran

No one can enjoy freedom without trembling.

Emil Cioran

So long as man is protected by madness, he functions, and flourishes.

Emil Cioran

Life is merely a fracas on an unmapped terrain, and the universe a geometry stricken with epilepsy.

Emil Cioran

One cannot live without motives. I have no motives left, and I am living.

Emil Cioran

He who hates himself is not humble.

Emil Cioran

Injustice constitutes the essence of social life.

Emil Cioran

Tyranny is just what one can develop a taste for, since it so happens that man prefers to wallow in fear rather than to face the anguish of being himself.

Emil Cioran

The more intense a spiritual leader's appetite for power, the more he is concerned to limit it to others.

Emil Cioran

Knowledge, having irritated and stimulated our appetite for power, will lead us inexorably to our ruin.

Emil Cioran

Ambition is a drug that makes its addicts potential madmen.

Emil Cioran

One hardly saves a world without ruling it.

Emil Cioran

A marvel that has nothing to offer, democracy is at once a nation's paradise and its tomb.

Emil Cioran

Nothing is so wearing as the possession or abuse of liberty.

Emil Cioran