Emil Cioran Quotes

The more you understand yourself, the more you will understand the world.

It takes longer for man to find out man than any other creature that is made.

We read books to find out who we are. What other people, real or imaginary, do and think and feel... is an essential guide to our understanding of what we ourselves are and may become.

To understand yourself is the beginning of wisdom.

He who knows himself knows others.

You know more about me than I do about myself, that's probably true.

We never completely comprehend ourselves, but we can do far more than comprehend.

I was a little truth seeker as a child. I wanted more than anything to understand myself and also other people.

The philosophy of the wisest man that ever existed, is mainly derived from the act of introspection.

We have to have a very clear understanding of ourselves.

Everyone should go inward, get curious about themselves, and investigate their shadows. It's one of the most important gifts we can give humanity. It's one of our most vital causes.

All your life you compare and contrast, explore and search. But knowing yourself well is, well, elusive.

Man... knows only when he is satisfied and when he suffers, and only his sufferings and his satisfactions instruct him concerning himself, teach him what to seek and what to avoid. For the rest, man is a confused creature; he knows not whence he comes or whither he goes, he knows little of the world, and above all, he knows little of himself.

I once read that people who study others are wise but those who study themselves are enlightened.

And since you know you cannot see yourself, so well as by reflection, I, your glass, will modestly discover to yourself, that of yourself which you yet know not of.

I do not know at first what it is that harms me. The men and things of to-day are wont to be fairer and truer in to-morrow's memory.

You know me better than you think, you know, and you shall know me better yet.

People who do not understand themselves have a craving for understanding — a thing which is rather surmised and never spoken than known and clothed in words.

He who knows others is clever; He who knows himself has discernment.

Just as true humor is laughter at oneself, true humanity is knowledge of oneself.

Man knows himself only insofar as he knows the world, becoming aware of it if only within himself, and of himself self only within it. Each new subject, well observed, opens up within us a new organ of thought.

The self- explorer, whether he wants to or not, becomes the explorer of everything else. He learns to see himself, but suddenly, provided he was honest, all the rest appears, and it is as rich as he was, and, as a final crowning, richer.

The first step towards knowing is to see that you do not know.

We read books to find out who we are.

Every one is least known to himself, and it is very difficult for a man to know himself.