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True contact between beings is established only by mute presence

True contact between beings is established only by mute presence, by apparent non-communication, by that mysterious and wordless exchange which resembles inward prayer.

— E. M. Cioran, The Trouble With Being Born

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Time was coming unstuck from being — at my expense.

Even in childhood I watched the hours flow, independent of any reference, any action, any event, the disjunction of time from what was not itself, its autonomous existence, its special status, its empire, its tyranny. I remember clearly that afternoon when, for the first time, confronting the empty universe, I was no more than a passage of moments reluctant to go on playing their proper parts. Time was coming unstuck from being — at my expense.

— E. M. Cioran, The Trouble With Being Born

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If death had only negative aspects, dying would be an unmanageable action.

— E. M. Cioran, The Trouble With Being Born

If death had only negative aspects, dying would be an unmanageable action.
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trembling and perplexed, forever at the mercy of a nuance

Everything exists; nothing exists. Either formula affords a like serenity. The man of anxiety, to his misfortune, remains between them, trembling and perplexed, forever at the mercy of a nuance, incapable of gaining a foothold in the security of being or in the absence of being.

— E. M. Cioran, The Trouble With Being Born

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“In this our life”

“In this our life” — to be in life: suddenly I am struck by the strangeness of such an expression, as if it applied to no one.

— E. M. Cioran, The Trouble With Being Born

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the paltry depths

Whenever I flag and feel sorry for my brain, I am carried away by an irresistible desire to proclaim. That is the moment I realize the paltry depths out of which rise reformers, prophets, and saviors.

— E. M. Cioran, The Trouble With Being Born

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before stooping to a name

As the years pass, the number of those we can communicate with diminishes. When there is no longer anyone to talk to, at last we will be as we were before stooping to a name.

— E. M. Cioran, The Trouble With Being Born

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Demonic deliverance

Thought is never innocent, for it is pitiless, it is aggressive, it helps us burst our bonds. Were we to suppress what is evil and even demonic in thought, we should have to renounce the very concept of deliverance.

— E. M. Cioran, The Trouble With Being Born