Quote by E. M. Cioran

Show me one thing here on earth which has begun well and not ended badly. The proudest palpitations are engulfed in a sewer, where they cease throbbing, as though having reached their natural term: this downfall constitutes the heart's drama and the negative meaning of history.

Show me one thing here on earth which has begun well and not

Summary

This quote suggests that everything on earth, regardless of how promising it may start, inevitably ends poorly. The "proudest palpitations" symbolize the highest aspirations and achievements of individuals or societies, but they ultimately succumb to inevitable decay. The mention of a sewer implies that these great ambitions are ultimately consumed or overwhelmed by the negative aspects of life. Thus, the quote implies that the downfall and eventual demise of these aspirations are the core elements of both personal and historical tragedy.

Topics

Age

By E. M. Cioran

Liked the quote? Share it with your friends.

Random Quotations

Let us be true: this is the highest maxim of art and of life

Let us be true: this is the highest maxim of art and of life, the secret of eloquence and of virtue, and of all moral authority.

Henri Frederic Amiel

Art

Money is like a sixth sense without which you cannot make a

Money is like a sixth sense without which you cannot make a complete use of the other five.

W. Somerset Maugham

Money

History takes time. History makes memory.

History takes time. History makes memory.

History

Men are apt to prefer a prosperous error to an afflicted tru

Men are apt to prefer a prosperous error to an afflicted truth.

Mistakes

The public school system: Usually a twelve year sentence of

The public school system: Usually a twelve year sentence of mind control. Crushing creativity, smashing individualism, encouraging collectivism and compromise, destroying the exercise of intellectual inquiry, twisting it instead into meek subservience to authority.

Education

Silence has its own language and in that silence he found wo

Silence has its own language and in that silence he found words within himself; words for her, words for him and words for them.

Love Silence Silent Love

And what, Socrates, is the food of the soul? Surely, I said,

And what, Socrates, is the food of the soul? Surely, I said, knowledge is the food of the soul.

Food Knowledge

The more you use your brain, the more brain you will have to

The more you use your brain, the more brain you will have to use.

George A. Dorsey

Mind

America, America, God shed His grace on thee, and crown thy

America, America, God shed His grace on thee, and crown thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea.

Katherine Lee Bates

America

If you fell outward to the limit of the universe, would you

If you fell outward to the limit of the universe, would you find a board fence and signs reading DEAD END? No. You might find something hard and rounded, as the chick must see the egg from the inside. And if you should peck through that shell (or find a door), what great and torrential light might shine through your opening at the end of space? Might you look through and discover our entire universe is but part of one atom on a blade of grass? Might you be forced to think that by burning a twig you incinerate an eternity of eternities? That existence rises not to one infinite but to an infinity of them?

Life Reality Infinity Universe

Old age isn't so bad when you consider the alternative.

Old age isn't so bad when you consider the alternative.

Maurice Chevalier

Irregularity and want of method are only supportable in men

Irregularity and want of method are only supportable in men of great learning or genius, who are often too full to be exact, and therefore they choose to throw down their pearls in heaps before the reader, rather than be at the pains of stringing them.

Learning