Only now do I really understand the obsession with failure that Cioran kept returning to in his later works. I think I’ve become a failure. Maybe from now on I’ll learn to love failure more. I probably should’ve found Cioran earlier. Maybe then I wouldn’t have drained myself trying to prove anything. Anyway, what’s left below are a few more fragments from the journal I kept last year: === ... alr... » Continue Reading
"... When you come to a point where you want to live like a plant, fully unconscious, then you have come to despair of humanity. But why shouldn't I exchange places with a flower ? I already know what it means to be man, to live in history, have ideals : what else is in it for me ? To be a man is, of course, a great thing ! But it is mainly a tragedy because to be human means to live in a totally... » Continue Reading
“To what temptations, to what extremities does lucidity lead! Shall we desert it now to take refuge in unconsciousness? Anyone can escape into sleep, we are all geniuses when we dream, the butcher the poet’s equal there. But our perspicacity cannot bear that such a marvel should endure, nor that inspiration should be brought within everyone’s grasp; daylight strips us of the night’s gifts. Only th... » Continue Reading
“The conviction that the world, and therefore man too, is something which really ought not to exist is in fact calculated to instil in us indulgence towards one another: for what can be expected of beings placed in such a situation as we are? From this point of view one might indeed consider that the appropriate form of address between man and man ought to be, not monsieur, sir, but fellow suffere... » Continue Reading