E.M Cioran and some “Uplifting” quotes

I watched an old black and white clip from an interview with E.M Cioran in which he talks about if not for the idea of suicide he would of for sure killed himself. It was knowing this that made it possible for him to carry on living.

At first I thought what a horrific way to view your own existence, however on second viewing I began to see a severe form of optimism in what he said, a kind of counter intuitive path to positivity. The button was readily available to him but he left it unpressed.

I read The Trouble with Being Born in the later months of 2023. At first, like with the above quote, I thought that Cioran's view of life was bleak and depressive. Yet as I progressed through his book of collected aphorism I began to see a brighter side to his thoughts, some even comedic. It’s not about how to live but how to continue on living.

I’d like to follow this with some of the highlights I took from The Trouble with being Born.

Let's call them some “uplifting” quotes.

• Paradise was unendurable, otherwise the first man would have adapted to it; this world is no less so, since here we regret paradise or anticipate another one. What to do? where to go? Do nothing and go nowhere, easy enough.

• Each of us believes, quite unconsciously of course, that he alone pursues the truth, which the rest are incapable of seeking out and unworthy of attaining. This madness is so deep-rooted and so useful that it is impossible to realize what would become of each of us if it were someday to disappear.

• If we could see ourselves as others see us, we would vanish on the spot.

• We should repeat to ourselves, every day: I am one of the billions dragging himself across the earth’s surface. One, and no more. This banality justifies any conclusion, any behavior or action: debauchery, chastity, suicide, work, crime, sloth, or rebellion … Whence it follows that each man is right to do what he does.