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Single Idea 19645

[from 'A Short History of Decay' by E.M. Cioran, in 1. Philosophy / B. History of Ideas / 1. History of Ideas ]

Full Idea

A Kierkegaard, a Nietzsche, had they appeared in the most anodyne age, would have had no less tremulous, no less incendiary an inspiration.

Gist of Idea

Some thinkers would have been just as dynamic, no matter when they had lived

Source

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

Book Reference

Cioran,E.M.: 'A Short History of Decay', ed/tr. Howard,Richard [Penguin 2010], p.180


A Reaction

He is saying that some (only some) thinkers are independent of the age and culture in which they live. Personally I think of those two as distinctive products of a romantic age. Diogenes of Sinope seems a bit of a misfit!