“Some people maintain that the fear of death does not have a deeper justification, because as long as there is an I there is no death, and once dead there is no I any longer. These people have forgotten about the very strange phenomenon of gradual agony. What comfort does this artificial distinction between the I and death offer a man who has a strong premonition of death? What meaning can logical argument or subtle thought have for someone deeply imbued with a feeling of the irrevocable? All attempts to bring existential questions onto a logical plane are null and void. Philosophers are too proud to confess their fear of death and too supercilious to acknowledge the spiritual fecundity of illness. Their reflections on death exhibit a hypocritical serenity; in fact, they tremble with fear more than anyone else. One should not forget that philosophy is the art of masking inner torments.” LifePhilosophyDeathExistentialismNihilismCioranOn The Heights Of DespairOn Philosophers Book:On the Heights of Despair Source: On the Heights of Despair
“One struggles, one labors, one sacrifices, apparently for oneself, actually for anyone at all, for some future enemy, for an unknown enemy. And this is even truer of peoples than of individuals. Heraclitus was mistaken: it is not the lightning, but irony that rules the universe. It is irony that is the law of the world.” LifeSacrificeMeaningIrony Book:Drawn and Quartered Source: Drawn and Quartered
“If we did not bear the stigmata of life, how easy it would be to steal away, and how well everything would go by itself!” LifePessimismAntinatalismStigmata Book:The Trouble with Being Born Source: The Trouble with Being Born