Emil Cioran Quotes

I don't believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive.

We learn the inner secret of happiness when we learn to direct our inner drives, our interest and our attention to something besides ourselves.

How could there be any question of acquiring or possessing, when the one thing needful for a man is to become - to be at last, and to die in the fullness of his being.

Life, is not a having and a getting, but a being and a becoming.

The man who is aware of himself is henceforward independent; and he is never bored, and life is only too short, and he is steeped through and through with a profound yet temperate happiness.

You know you've reached true success the day you become truly humble. That's the day you stop needing to prove to the world - and yourself - that you've accomplished something meaningful.

I've never been career-oriented. Did I ever want to be a star? What's a star? Is that something in the heavens? That's the only definition that comes to my mind. And the most important goals in my life have been to move gently, to be at ease with the mystery of what it's all about.

Your duty is to Be, and not to be this or that.

When you know your not going to die, you have to ask yourself... What's the highest and best use for myself.

Blessed is that man who knows his own distaff and has found his own spindle.

Man exists, turns up, appears on the scene and only afterwards, defines himself

If any man seeks for greatness, let him forget greatness and ask for truth, and he will find both.

A wise man is cured of ambition by ambition itself; his aim is so exalted that riches, office, fortune and favour cannot satisfy him.

I never had time to dream about being anyone else.

Do not let it be your aim to be something, but to be someone.

People are surprised at how down-to-earth I am. I like to stay home on Friday nights and listen to 'The Art of Happiness' by the Dalai Lama.

This age thing is all up to you. It's like happiness is up to you. You just have to understand what it is before you get it.

At my funeral, if one said, 'Nick was a generous person,' trust me I won't be doing cartwheels in my coffin. Recognition from people is never and never will be a goal. Some people strive for that respect or honor. Living a life to just reach for the position and status is vanity and sin.

Seek happiness for its own sake, and you will not find it; seek for duty, and happiness will follow as the shadow comes with the sunshine.

It don't take a lot to make me happy. I'm not spoiled like that.

Every true man, sir, who is a little above the level of the beasts and plants does not live for the sake of living, without knowing how to live; but he lives so as to give a meaning and a value of his own to life.

Balance, peace, and joy are the fruit of a successful life. It starts with recognizing your talents and finding ways to serve others by using them.

It is the chiefest point of happiness that a man is willing to be what he is.

Transcendence constitutes selfhood.

All the suffering, stress, and addiction comes from not realizing you already are what you are looking for.