Emil Cioran
Imaginary pains are by far the most real we suffer, since we feel a constant need for them and invent them because there is no way of doing without them.
Sperm is a bandit in its pure state.
A civilization is destroyed only when its gods are destroyed.
The fear of being deceived is the vulgar version of the quest for Truth.
A marvel that has nothing to offer, democracy is at once a nation's paradise and its tomb.
If, at the limit, you can rule without crime, you cannot do so without injustices.
You are done for - a living dead man - not when you stop loving but stop hating. Hatred preserves: in it, in its chemistry, resides the mystery of life.
The fact that life has no meaning is a reason to live – moreover, the only one.Collection: Facts
I feel completely detached from any country, any group. I am a metaphysically displaced person.Collection: Country
One does not inhabit a country; one inhabits a language. That is our country, our fatherland – and no other.Collection: Country
One doesn’t live in a country, one lives in a language.Collection: Country
To defy heredity is to defy billions of years, to defy the first cell.Collection: Firsts
A self-respecting man is a man without a country. A fatherland is birdlime...Collection: Country