"Imaginary pains are by far the most real we suffer, since we feel a constant need for them and invent them because there is no way of doing without them."

Emil Cioran Philosophy See all quotes by Emil Cioran →

React to this quote

More by Emil Cioran

“Fortunate those who, born before science, were privileged to die of their first disease!”

“Freedom can be manifested only in the void of beliefs, in the absence of axioms, and only where the laws have no more authority than a hypothesis.”

“Losing love is so rich a philosophical ordeal that it makes a hairdresser into a rival of Socrates.”

“Only the idiot is equipped to breathe.”

“The fact that life has no meaning is a reason to live — moreover, the only one.”

“The more one is obsessed with God, the less one is innocent. Nobody bothered about him in paradise. The fall brought about this divine torture. It's not possible to be conscious of divinity without guilt. Thus God is rarely to be found in an innocent soul.”

Resonant Thoughts

"Every time I look at that girl on television, I admire her, not because she's a celebrity—I don't admire her celebreality—I admire her because she's a child of God and doesn't know it. I'm talkin' 'b…"

— Britney Spears

Music1981

#love

"Of course it's extremely easy to say, the heck with it. I'm just going to adapt myself to the structures of power and authority and do the best I can within them. Sure, you can do that. But that's not…"

— Noam Chomsky

Philosophy1928

#power

"From the days of Anne Hutchinson, Boston never lacked clubs; and the Caulkers' Club was the prototype of many, rather more secular and political than religious or transcendental, which flourished in t…"

— Carl L. Becker

Philosophy1873–1945

#time

"So when you have to ask yourself: "Why am I holding back, why am I doing pictures?" And it's usually: that's because you're afraid. Bottom line. And for great art you have to be brave. So that the who…"

— Alonzo King

Social Activism1796–1835

#truth