The premonition of madness is complicated by the fear of lucidity in madness, the fear of the moments of return and reunion... One would welcome chaos if one were not afraid of lights in it.
Emile M. CioranRead
Every word affords me pain. Yet how sweet it would be if I could hear what the flowers have to say about death!
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the pain of existence and the longing for a deeper understanding of life and death.
In this quote, Emile M. Cioran expresses a profound sense of suffering associated with the act of speaking and existing in the human condition. He contrasts this pain with a yearning to hear the more serene and perhaps enlightening perspective of nature, represented by flowers, on the inevitability of death, suggesting that nature may offer a wisdom and acceptance that humanity struggles to achieve.
In practice
In a memorial speech, one might use this quote to highlight the beauty of nature in discussing the concept of death.
The premonition of madness is complicated by the fear of lucidity in madness, the fear of the moments of return and reunion... One would welcome chaos if one were not afraid of lights in it.
We are afraid of the enormity of the possible.
There was a time when time did not yet exist. β¦ The rejection of birth is nothing but the nostalgia for this time before time.
A marvel that has nothing to offer, democracy is at once a nation's paradise and its tomb.
Paradise was unendurable, otherwise the first man would have adapted to it; this world is no less so, since here we regret paradise or anticipate another one. What to do? Where to go? Do nothing and go nowhere, easy enough.
It is not worth the bother of killing yourself, since you always kill yourself too late.
I was raised as an Orthodox Jew in a major neighborhood specializing in that, in Brooklyn. And somewhere when I was about 14, something changed. And that change probably involved updating every molecule in my body, in that I sort of realized: this is nonsense, there's no God, there's no free will, there is no purpose.
Addiction should never be treated as a crime. It has to be treated as a health problem. We do not send alcoholics to jail in this country. Over 500,000 people are in our jails who are nonviolent drug users.
All human beings are like travelers floating down the eternal river of time, embarking at a certain point and disembarking again at another point in order to make room for others waiting below the river to come aboard.
I don't care how nice one is to you, the thing you must always remember is that almost never does he really see you as he sees himself, as he sees his own kind.
What we do during our working hours determines what we have; what we do in our leisure hours determines what we are.
We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves.
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