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Single Idea 19628
[filed under theme 22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 1. Nature of Ethics / c. Purpose of ethics
]
Full Idea
Epochs of apogee cultivate values for their own sake: life is only a means of realising them; the individual is not aware of living - he lives.
Clarification
'apogee' is the highest point
Gist of Idea
At a civilisation's peak values are all that matters, and people unconsciously live by them
Source
E.M. Cioran (A Short History of Decay [1949], 3)
Book Ref
Cioran,E.M.: 'A Short History of Decay', ed/tr. Howard,Richard [Penguin 2010], p.115
A Reaction
This is a very Nietzschean thought. Mind you, a crazed and dangerous crowd exhibits the same absorption in simple values.
The
64 ideas
from E.M. Cioran
19627
|
Opportunists can save a nation, and heroes can ruin it
[Cioran]
|
19622
|
The pointlessness of our motives and irrelevance of our gestures reveals our vacuity
[Cioran]
|
19602
|
You are stuck in the past if you don't know boredom
[Cioran]
|
19619
|
To live authentically, we must see that philosophy is totally useless
[Cioran]
|
19618
|
I abandoned philosophy because it didn't acknowledge melancholy and human weakness
[Cioran]
|
19621
|
Originality in philosophy is just the invention of terms
[Cioran]
|
19620
|
Great systems of philosophy are just brilliant tautologies
[Cioran]
|
19624
|
Intelligence only fully flourishes at the end of a historical period
[Cioran]
|
19625
|
The ideal is to impose a religion by force, and then live in doubt about its beliefs
[Cioran]
|
19614
|
Lovers are hateful, apart from their hovering awareness of death
[Cioran]
|
19615
|
I want to suppress in myself the normal reasons people have for action
[Cioran]
|
19599
|
Ideas are neutral, but people fill them with passion and weakness
[Cioran]
|
19600
|
When man abandons religion, he then follows new fake gods and mythologies
[Cioran]
|
19623
|
Circles of hell are ridiculous; all that matters is to be there
[Cioran]
|
19616
|
As the perfect wisdom of detachment, philosophy offers no rivals to Taoism
[Cioran]
|
19617
|
Evidence suggests that humans do not have a purpose
[Cioran]
|
19610
|
Religions see suicide as insubordination
[Cioran]
|
19611
|
No one has ever found a good argument against suicide
[Cioran]
|
19626
|
Our instincts had to be blunted and diminished, to make way for consciousness!
[Cioran]
|
19603
|
Why is God so boring, and why does God resemble humanity so little?
[Cioran]
|
19605
|
Despite endless suggestions, no one has found a goal for history
[Cioran]
|
19604
|
Unlike other creatures, mankind seems lost in nature
[Cioran]
|
19606
|
We can only live because our imagination and memory are poor
[Cioran]
|
19612
|
The universe is dirty and fragile, as if a scandal in nothingness had produced its matter
[Cioran]
|
19613
|
It is pointless to refuse or accept the social order; we must endure it like the weather
[Cioran]
|
19608
|
Wisdom is just the last gasp of a dying civilization
[Cioran]
|
19601
|
Life is now more dreaded than death
[Cioran]
|
19609
|
If you have not contemplated suicide, you are a miserable worm
[Cioran]
|
19631
|
The history of ideas (and deeds) occurs in a meaningless environment
[Cioran]
|
19632
|
An axiom has no more authority than a frenzy
[Cioran]
|
19630
|
No great idea ever emerged from a dialogue
[Cioran]
|
19633
|
We use concepts to master our fears; saying 'death' releases us from confronting it
[Cioran]
|
19628
|
At a civilisation's peak values are all that matters, and people unconsciously live by them
[Cioran]
|
19629
|
A nation gives expression to its sum of values, and is then exhausted
[Cioran]
|
19634
|
Man is never himself; he always aims at less than life, or more than life
[Cioran]
|
19637
|
History is wonderfully devoid of meaning
[Cioran]
|
19636
|
Truth is just an error insufficiently experienced
[Cioran]
|
19641
|
If you lack beliefs, boredom is your martyrdom
[Cioran]
|
19640
|
No one is brave enough to say they don't want to do anything; we despise such a view
[Cioran]
|
19645
|
Some thinkers would have been just as dynamic, no matter when they had lived
[Cioran]
|
19638
|
Metaphysics is a universalisation of physical anguish
[Cioran]
|
19642
|
Eventually every 'truth' is guaranteed by the police
[Cioran]
|
19644
|
History is the bloody rejection of boredom
[Cioran]
|
19643
|
A religion needs to motivate killings, and cannot tolerate rivals
[Cioran]
|
19646
|
Values don't accumulate; they are ruthlessly replaced
[Cioran]
|
19639
|
We all need sexual secrets!
[Cioran]
|
19607
|
The mind is superficial, only concerned with the arrangement of events, not their significance
[Cioran]
|
23064
|
So-called wisdom is just pondering things instead of acting
[Cioran]
|
23062
|
It is better to watch the hours pass, than trying to fill them
[Cioran]
|
23063
|
The first man obviously found paradise unendurable
[Cioran]
|
23067
|
Suicide is pointless, because it always comes too late
[Cioran]
|
23068
|
People who really believe anti-realism don't bother to prove it
[Cioran]
|
23065
|
If only we could write like a reptile, of endless sensations and no concepts!
[Cioran]
|
23066
|
Negation doesn't arise from reasoning, but from deep instincts
[Cioran]
|
23069
|
Fear cures boredom, because it is stronger
[Cioran]
|
23071
|
We could only be responsible if we had consented before birth to who we are
[Cioran]
|
23070
|
We morally dissolve if we spend time with excessive beauty
[Cioran]
|
23072
|
Systems are the worst despotism, in philosophy and in life
[Cioran]
|
23073
|
Convictions are failures to study anything thoroughly
[Cioran]
|
23076
|
If people always acted without words we would take them for robots
[Cioran]
|
23075
|
A text explained ceases to be a text
[Cioran]
|
23074
|
In anxiety people cling to what reinforces it, because it is a deep need
[Cioran]
|
23077
|
The word 'being' is very tempting, but in fact means nothing at all
[Cioran]
|
23078
|
Opinions are fine, but having convictions means something has gone wrong
[Cioran]
|