more from E.M. Cioran

Single Idea 19646

[catalogued under 22. Metaethics / B. Value / 1. Nature of Value / a. Nature of value]

Full Idea

Values do not accumulate: a generation contributes something new only by trampling on what was unique in the preceding generation.

Gist of Idea

Values don't accumulate; they are ruthlessly replaced

Source

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

Book Reference

Cioran,E.M.: 'A Short History of Decay', ed/tr. Howard,Richard [Penguin 2010], p.183


A Reaction

That may seem true for a Frenchman or a Romanian, but it doesn't feel true of British culture, which seems to me to have accumulated values over the last five hundred years. Before 1500 it seems to me to be a foreign country. We may be near the end!