“No mental state is less creative than mild sadness, the very negation of inspiration. Everything depends on the level of sadness, on the frequency of its vibrations. At a certain level it is poetical, at another musical, and finally religious. Thus there are different kinds of sadness: of poets, of musicians, of saints. The sadness of poets or musicians leaves their heart, goes around the world, and returns like an echo. The sadness of saints also leaves the heart but it stops in God, thus fulfilling every saint's secret wish, to become his prisoner.” ArtPhilosophyGodMusicSadnessSaints Book:Tears and Saints Source: Tears and Saints
“To be a saint, never miss a single opportunity among the infinite varieties of agony. [...] Competing with Jesus, the saints" excesses repeat Golgotha, adding to it the refinements oftorture gleaned from subsequent Christian centuries. Christs crown ofthorns, imitated by the saints, caused more suffering in the world than I don’t know how many incurable diseases. Jesus was, after all, the saints’ incurable disease. [...] Jesus is responsible for so much suffering. His conscience must weigh on him very heavily, since he no longer shows any signs of life. [...] I don’t know any bigger sin than that ofJesus.” SufferingJesusSaintAgonySaints Book:Tears and Saints Source: Tears and Saints
“The empire of the sky occupies territory emptied of vitality. Heavenly imperialism aims at biological neutrality. How does music suck our blood? Man cannot live without support in space. But music annihilates space completely. The only art capable of bringing comfort, yet it opens up more wounds than all the others! Music is the sound track of askesis. Could one make love after Bach? Not even after Handel, whose unearthliness does not have a heavenly perfume. Music is a tomb of delights, beatitude which buries us. Saintliness also draws blood. We lose it in direct proportion to our longing for heaven. The roads to heaven have been worn smooth by all the erring instincts. Indeed, heaven was born of these errors.” PhilosophyMusicSaintsSaintliness Book:Tears and Saints Source: Tears and Saints
“Saintliness interests me for the delirium of self-aggrandizement hidden beneath its meekness, it's Will to Power masked by goodness. Saints have used their deficiencies to their best advantage. Yet their megalomania is undefinable, strange, and moving.” SaintsWill To PowerSaintliness Book:Tears and Saints Source: Tears and Saints
“A secret voice whispers to me incessantly that ifI were to live among saints I would need to carry a dagger. [...] How can one not hate the angels, the saints, and God, that entire band from paradise which fuels such a passionate longing for other shelters and other temptations? Heaven irritates me. In its Christian guise, it drives me to despair.” ReligionHeavenExistentialismSaintsEmil Cioran Book:Tears and Saints Source: Tears and Saints