Emil Cioran Quotes
Ideas should be neutral. But man animates them with his passions and folly. Impure and turned into beliefs, they take on the appearance of reality. The passage from logic is consummated. Thus are born ideologies, doctrines, and bloody farce.
Cioran, E. M. A Short History of Decay. Translated by Richard Howard, Arcade Publishing, 1998.
This famous quotation was only partly original. The most famous part, "Facts are stubborn things" was earlier used by the French Writer, Alain René Le Sage in Gil Blas
This was the origin of the first part of John Adams famous quoation {310967}
Hitti was describing the Arabs but the principle would apply to almost any people. See {585931} for a political expression of this principle. Also {594723}, {607508} and {605259}.
At the time, one of the favorite right wing accusations that the media were all biased in favor of liberal points of view. Any time a news story was covered that implied or showed that right wing ideology might be wrong, the conservatives would cry “liberal bias” without addressing whether the objection was sound or not. Often the most extreme right wing views are ideological and flaunt reality. Colbert turned this into a very funny phrase.
Emil Mihai Cioran was a Romanian-born philosopher and essayist, who published works in both Romanian and French. His work has been noted for its pervasive philosophical pessimism, style, and aphorisms. His works frequently engaged with issues of suffering, decay, and nihilism. In 1937, Cioran moved to the Latin Quarter of Paris, which became his permanent residence, wherein he lived in seclusion with his partner, Simone Boué.
