I thought this quote was interesting:
cioran was known for semi-ironically expressing aphorisms in poetic form, but not even cioran himself was fully committed to his own beliefs because his beliefs were in a constant state of a revision, as he accumulated more experience and knowledge (i.e he considered himself a fascist in his youth before renouncing his association to the Iron Guard years later) and he rarely delved deep enough into those beliefs to fully actualize them, like from what I've read, I don't think he ever cared about amassing critical acclaim, let alone cult-like followings (which he did, but if he were still alive when it happened, then he'd probably think they were idiots) which sets him apart from most philosophers because his life's work was more like the journal of someone who wrote well enough to gain traction by sheer virtue of being knowledgeable, insightful, even lyrical, instead of an established philosopher arguing in favor of/against any school of thought. I remember reading from several sources that some people even consider him to be the anti-philosophical philosopher.
but I think the fact that he incorporates aphorisms into his writing makes his quotes automatically relatable, like he's not challenging anything by pointing out general truths. most of us seem to be in agreement with the idea that we should be skeptical of incoming information by using our own crystallized framework as a metric for veracity, but it took on a slightly different meaning to me after shackleton reviewed the context surrounding the quote. that's a
slightly more controversial idea but essentially it's better to express our own views, as incomplete or misguided as they may be, instead of relinquishing control of the situation to someone whose views we know for certain we disagree with, out of fear, because then we're stuck living with the consequences of someone else's actions, potentially even their mistakes, instead of our own actions, alternatively our own mistakes, so yeah life would probably suck.
it
vaguely reminds me of invictus by william ernest henley in the sense that I think they're both about self-control within reason in different circumstances
@
ashlesha what are your thoughts on the quote?