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Emil Cioran (1911 - 1995)
He was born in Rasinari, Romania and educated at Bucharest University. A scholarship from the French Institute in Bucharest brought him in 1937 to Paris.
Emil Cioran's works constitute what the American novelist and critic William Gass has called "a philosophical romance on modern themes of alienation, absurdity, boredom, futility, decay, the tyranny of history, the vulgarities of change, awareness as a agony, reason as disease. "His friend Samuel Beckett, another exile in Paris, was one of many who helped Cioran out financially and was repaid by his advice.

a Fatherland is a moment-by-moment soporific. One cannot sufficiently envy - or pity - the Jews for not having one, or for having only provisional ones, Israel first of all
a fruitful conversation springs only from minds absorbed in reinforcing their own confusion
death is a state of perfection, the only one within reach of mortals
death, until now, is life\'s most concrete invention
every anomaly seduces us, life in the first place, that anomaly par excellence
the sole means of protecting your solitude is to offend everyone, beginning with those you love
true moral elegance consists in the art of disguising one\'s victories as defeats
we discern a flavor in our days only when we dodge the obligation to have a destiny
we have convictions only if we have studied nothing thoroughly
we inhabit a language rather than a country