Emil Cioran Quotes

I invented my life by taking for granted that everything I did not like would have an opposite, which I would like.

I exist, I am, I am here, I am becoming, I make my own life and no one else makes it for me. I must face my own shortcomings, mistakes, transgressions. No one can suffer my non-being as I do, but tomorrow is another day, and I must decide to leave my bed and live again. And if I fail, I don't have the comfort of blaming you or life or God.

It's all in how you look at your life, because no one has a wonderful life. But you can make it what you want it to be.

There had to be something else out there that would help me change. I wanted to live.

Life consists not simply in what heredity and environment do to us but in what we make out of what they do to us.

I think if I ever stopped pushing myself, I would revert quickly to quite repetitive, restrictive behaviour. But in pushing myself and concentrating on what I can do, I think I can contribute to society. And that gives me the desire to keep pushing, to see what I'm capable of. The thing to do is not to stop.

This life is worth living, we can say, since it is what we make it.

I think we all strive to push ourselves, to overcome our struggles. And when we do, we get to know ourselves better.

What people think of you doesn't matter, because I believe anything's possible. No one's going to convince me I'm not capable of living up to my full potential, because I've obsessed over that idea. The universe wants me to be great for me.

The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it.

Nature, philosophy and social issues are the three things that always occupy my mind. You do not have any power over others but can only change yourself.

Bader's philosophy was my philosophy. His whole attitude to life was mine.

Changing your nature is the hardest thing to do. But I discovered that you can be who you choose to be.

It takes half your life before you discover life is a do-it-yourself project.

I am what time, circumstance, history, have made of me, certainly, but I am also, much more than that. So are we all.

I believe in living life the way that you want to live it every day, and if you do that, you don't really need to have New Year's resolutions.

The world itself is the will to power - and nothing else! And you yourself are the will to power - and nothing else!

No one is in control of your happiness but you; therefore, you have the power to change anything about yourself or your life that you want to change.

In the end, I want to be able to say, 'My life was what I made it.'

Even though you can't expect to defeat the absurdity of the world, you must make the attempt. That's morality, that's religion, that's art, that's life.

It is well to be prepared for life as it is, but it is better to be prepared to make life better than it is.

We all live in suspense from day to day; in other words, you are the hero of your own story.

I am where I am because I believe in all possibilities.

The most important thing in my life is to live my life and enjoy it - to do what I think is right and what I think is good.

Your own experience keeps taking you towards something. My book adds the hope that it's a better something.