Quote #147

All my life, I have lived with the feeling that I have been kept from my true place. If the expression 'metaphysical exile' had no meaning, my existence alone would afford it one.

Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.

More from Emile Cioran

  1. 'You were wrong to count on me.' Who can speak in terms? God and the Failure.
  2. A phantom cannot be cured, still less an enlightened mind. We can only cure those who belong to the earth and still have their roots in it,…
  3. Won over by solitude, yet he remains in the world: a stylite without a pillar.
  4. I pride myself on my capacity to perceive the transitory character of everything. An odd gift which has spoiled all my joys; better: all my…
  5. We must suffer to the end, to the moment when we stop believing in suffering
  6. A relief bordering on orgasm at the notion that one will never again embrace a cause, any cause...
  7. We must learn how to explode! Any disease is healthier than the one provoked by a hoarded rage.
  8. When you know yourself well and do not despise yourself utterly, it is because you are too exhausted to indulge in extreme feelings.

All Emile Cioran quotes