The premonition of madness is complicated by the fear of lucidity in madness, the fear of the moments of return and reunion... One would welcome chaos if one were not afraid of lights in it.
Emile M. CioranRead
Nothing is so wearing as the possession or abuse of liberty.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Liberty can be exhausting, whether it is used wisely or misused.
This quote by Emile M. Cioran suggests that the concept of liberty is not entirely freeing; rather, it can become a burden. The responsibilities that come with being free or the potential stress from the misuse of freedom can lead to a sense of weariness, highlighting the complex nature of liberty in human life.
Themes
LibertyFreedomBurdenResponsibilityPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the challenges of personal freedom at a philosophical seminar.
More from Emile M. Cioran
All quotes βWe are afraid of the enormity of the possible.
Emile M. CioranRead
There was a time when time did not yet exist. β¦ The rejection of birth is nothing but the nostalgia for this time before time.
Emile M. CioranRead
A marvel that has nothing to offer, democracy is at once a nation's paradise and its tomb.
Emile M. CioranRead
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.
Emile M. CioranRead
It is not worth the bother of killing yourself, since you always kill yourself too late.
Emile M. CioranRead
Similar quotes
Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and under the rule of a just God, cannot long retain it.
Abraham LincolnRead
I don't believe that in the name of the holiness of the city you have to put barbed wires, machine gun nests, mine pins and everything of that, in the name of the holiness of Jerusalem.
Yitzhak RabinRead
The belief that politics can be scientific must inevitably produce tyrannies. Politics cannot be a science, because in politics theory and practice cannot be separated, and the sciences depend upon their separation. Empirical politics must be kept in bounds by democratic institutions, which leave it up to the subjects of the experiment to say whether it shall be tried, and to stop it if they dislike it, because, in politics, there is a distinction, unknown to science, between Truth and Justice.
W. H. AudenRead
Attainment is followed by neglect, possession by disgust, and the malicious remark of the Greek epigrammatist on marriage may be applied to many another course of life, that its two days of happiness are the first and the last
Samuel JohnsonRead
People's ability to forget what they do not want to know, to overlook what is before their eyes, was seldom put to the test better than in Germany at that time.
W. G. SebaldRead
If we compare a severely defective human infant with a nonhuman animal, a dog or a pig, for example, we will often find the nonhuman to have superior capacities, both actual and potential, for rationality, self-consciousness, communication and anything else that can plausibly be considered morally significant.
Peter SingerRead