Better to be an animal than a man, an insect than an animal, a plant than an insect, and so on. Salvation? Whatever diminishes the kingdom of conscio… - Emil Cioran
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Better to be an animal than a man, an insect than an animal, a plant than an insect, and so on. Salvation? Whatever diminishes the kingdom of consciousness and compromises its supremacy.
Emil Cioran (8 April 1911 – 20 June 1995) was a Romanian philosopher and essayist whose work is known for its pervasive philosophical pessimism, which frequently engages with issues of suffering, decay, and nihilism.
Portrait adapted from
Wikimedia Commons, Photographer of Keyston agency/Getty Images before Rivarol Premium. Photo taken in the last years of Cioran's life-in-Romania, before his definitive transference in France (1947); first publication 1955-1960s; for Romanian law the artistic and non-artistic photo realized before 1956, or between the years 1956-1996, have their copyright expired. (Public domain / CC0)
Also Known As
Alternative Names:
Emil Mihai Cioran
•
Emil-Michel Cioran
Portrait from Wikimedia Commons. Credit: Photographer of Keyston agency/Getty Images before Rivarol Premium. Photo taken in the last years of Cioran's life-in-Romania, before his definitive transference in France (1947); first publication 1955-1960s; for Romanian law the artistic and non-artistic photo realized before 1956, or between the years 1956-1996, have their copyright expired.. Used under Public domain / CC0. Processed and styled by Quotewise.
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I anticipated witnessing in my lifetime the disappearance of our species. But the Gods have been against me.
“Meeting, after several years, someone we used to know as a child, the first glance almost always suggests that some great disaster must have befallen him” Leopardi, quoted by cioran.
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At this very moment, I am suffering — as we say in French, j'ai mal. This event, crucial for me, is nonexistent, even inconceivable for anyone else, for everyone else. Except for God, if that word can have a meaning.
