more from E.M. Cioran

Single Idea 19640

[catalogued under 23. Ethics / F. Existentialism / 4. Boredom]

Full Idea

No one has the audacity to exclaim: 'I don't want to do anything!' - we are more indulgent with a murderer than with a mind emancipated from actions.

Gist of Idea

No one is brave enough to say they don't want to do anything; we despise such a view

Source

E.M. Cioran (A Short History of Decay [1949], 6 'The Architect')

Book Reference

Cioran,E.M.: 'A Short History of Decay', ed/tr. Howard,Richard [Penguin 2010], p.164


A Reaction

Perhaps this should be the anti-epigraph for this website. I've slogged away at this project for nineteen years, probably for no other reason than that inactivity appears to be wicked. If I abandoned it, I would invent another project. Sad.