"Better to be an animal than a man, an insect than an animal, a plant than an insect, and so on. Salvation? Whatever diminishes the kingdom of consciousness and compromises its supremacy."

Emil Cioran Philosophy See all quotes by Emil Cioran →

quotekg

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.”

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

“Only the idiot is equipped to breathe.”

“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

"I think I gave indications early on that mine wasn't just going to be a commercial, er, career. If that were the case, then the first record would have been 10 versions of 'Loser.' I always thought it…"

— Beck

Music1914–2008

#mind

"One is tempted to define man as a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason."

— Oscar Wilde

Literature1854–1900

#philosophy

"A further turn is to be found in some "unmasking" accounts of natural science, which aim to show that its pretensions to deliver the truth are unfounded, because of social forces that control its acti…"

— Bernard Williams

Philosophy1929–2003

#knowledge

"Who cares what people say about me? I am right on the ball. And I don't think one should take oneself too seriously. Be like the laughing Buddha, I always say, smile through life! It will immediately …"

— Mallika Sherawat

Entertainment1976

#life