I live only because it is in my power to die when I choose to: without the idea of suicide, I'd have killed myself right away. - Emil Cioran

In the torments of the intellect, there is a certain bearing which is to be sought in vain among those of the heart. Skepticism is the elegance of anxiety.

All morning, I did nothing but repeat: "Man is an abyss, man is an abyss." — I could not, alas, find anything better.

The premonition of madness is complicated by the fear of lucidity in madness, the fear of the moments of return and reunion, when the intuition of disaster is so painful that it almost provokes a greater madness [...] One would welcome chaos if one were not afraid of lights in it.