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All Great Ideas Should Be Followed By An Exclamation Mark - A Warning Signal Similar To The Skull And Crossbones Drawn On High-voltage Transformers.
-Emile M. Cioran
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All Great Ideas Should

Emile M. Cioran
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All Great Ideas Should Be Followed By An Exclamation Mark - A Warning Signal Similar To The Skull And Crossbones Drawn On High-voltage Transformers.

Understanding the Quote: "all great ideas should be followed by an exclamation mark - a..."

This quote by Emile M. Cioran reflects deeply on the theme of exclamation marks. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Exclamation Marks, Ideas, Skulls, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Emile M. Cioran interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Emile M. Cioran

Emile M. Cioran is celebrated for insightful thoughts on exclamation marks and ideas. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Exclamation Marks
Ideas
Skulls
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A Decadent Civilization Compromises With Its Disease, Cherishes The Virus Infecting It, Loses Its Self-respect.
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Between Ennui And Ecstasy Unwinds Our Whole Experience Of Time.
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It Is An Understatement To Say That In This Society Injustices Abound: In Truth, It Is Itself The Quintessence Of Injustice.
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What Can Be Said, Lacks Reality. Only What Fails To Make Its Way Into Words Exists And Counts.
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I Am Like A Broken Puppet Whose Eyes Have Fallen Inside.
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The Task Of The Solitary Man Is To Be Even More Solitary.
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The History Of Ideas Is The History Of The Grudges Of Solitary Men.
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I Try--without Success--to Stop Finding Reasons For Vanity In Anything. When I Happen To Manage It Nonetheless, I Feel That I No Longer Belong To The Mortal Gang. I Am Above Everything Then, Above The Gods Themselves. Perhaps That Is What Death Is: A Sensation Of Great, Of Extreme Superiority.
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Able
Only Optimists Commit Suicide, Optimists Who No Longer Succeed At Being Optimists. The Others, Having No Reason To Live, Why Would They Have Any To Die?
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The Art Of Love: Knowing How To Combine The Temperament Of A Vampire With The Discretion Of An Anemone.
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Knowing
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Daggers
Consciousness
One Is And Remains A Slave As Long As One Is Not Cured Of Hoping.
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Slave
Remains
Everything Turns On Pain; The Rest Is Accessory, Even Nonexistent, For We Remember Only What Hurts. Painful Sensations Being The Only Real Ones, It Is Virtually Useless To Experience Others.
Hurt
Pain
Real
To Accomplish Nothing And Die Of The Strain
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Strain
A Garbled Quotation Is Equivalent To A Betrayal, An Insult, A Prejudice.
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Prejudice
Insult
We Define Only Out Of Despair, We Must Have A Formula... To Give A Facade Tot He Void.
Giving
Despair
Void
I Am The Beast With A Contorted Grin, Contracting Down To Illusion And Dilating Toward Infinity, Both Growing And Dying, Delightfully Suspended Between Hope For Nothing And Despair Of Everything, Brought Up Among Perfumes And Poisons, Consumed With Love And Hatred, Killed By Lights And Shadows. My Symbol Is Death Of Light And The Flame Of Death. Sparks Die In Me Only To Be Reborn As Thunder And Lightning. Darkness Itself Glows In Me.
Light
Flames
Hatred
Lucidity's Task: To Attain A Correct Despair, An Olympian Ferocity.
Despair
Tasks
Lucidity
If There Is Anyone Who Owes Everything To Bach, It Is Certainly God.
Ifs
Hungarian Language — Savage It May Be But Of A Beauty That Has Nothing Human About It, With Sonorities Of Another Universe, Powerful And Corrosive, Appropriate To Prayer, To Groans And To Tears, Risen Out Of Hell To Perpetuate Its Accent And Its Aura…words Of Nectar And Cyanide.
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Powerful
Tears
Since All Life Is Futility, Then The Decision To Exist Must Be The Most Irrational Of All.
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Decision
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To Possess A High Degree Of Consciousness, To Be Always Aware Of Yourself In Relation To The World, To Live In The Permanent Tension Of Knowledge, Means To Be Lost For Life.
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World
Degrees
Each Time I Fail To Think About Death, I Have The Impression Of Cheating, Of Deceiving Someone In Me.
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Thinking
Failing
Never To Have Occasion To Take A Position, To Make Up One's Mind, Or To Define Oneself - There Is No Wish I Make More Often.
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Wish
Position
Under Each Formula Lies A Corpse.
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Corpses
He Who Has Never Envied The Vegetable Has Missed The Human Drama.
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Vegetables
Humans
What To Think Of Other People? I Ask Myself This Question Each Time I Make A New Acquaintance. So Strange Does It Seem To Me That We Exist, And That We Consent To Exist.
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No One Can Keep His Griefs In Their Prime; They Use Themselves Up.
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Grieving
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A Book Has To Dig Through The Wounds, More, It Has Cause A New One, A Book It Has To Be Dangerous.
Book
Design
Causes
If I Were To Be Totally Sincere, I Would Say That I Do Not Know Why I Live And Why I Do Not Stop Living. The Answer Probably Lies In The Irrational Character Of Life Which Maintains Itself Without Reason.
Lying
Character
Answers
We Interest Others By The Misfortune We Spread Around Us.
Interest
Spread
Misfortunes
All That Shimmers On The Surface Of The World, All That We Call Interesting, Is The Fruit Of Ignorance And Inebriation.
Ignorance
Interesting
World
We Have Lost, Being Born, As Much As We Shall Lose Dying: Everything!
Dying
Lost
Born
I Would Like To Explode, Flow, Crumble Into Dust, And My Disintegration Would Be My Masterpiece.
Dust
Would Be
Flow
A People Represents Not So Much An Aggregate Of Ideas And Theories As Of Obsessions.
Ideas
People
Obsession
The Sole Means Of Protecting Your Solitude Is To Offend Everyone, Beginning With Those You Love.
Mean
Solitude
Sole
I Dream Of A Language Whose Words, Like Fists, Would Fracture Jaws.
Dream
Fists
Language
Consider Love: Is There A Nobler Outpouring, A Rapture Less Suspect? Its Shudders Rival Music, Compete With The Tears Of Solitude And Of Ecstasy: Sublime...but A Sublimity Inseperable From The Urinary Tract: Transports Bordering Upon Excretion, A Heaven Of The Glands, Sudden Sancitity Of The Orifices. It Takes No More Than A Moment Of Attention For This Intoxication, Shaken, To Cast You Back Into The Ordures Of Physiology Or A Moment Of Fatigue To Recognize That So Much Ardor Produces Only A Variety Of Mucous.
Love Is
Heaven
Solitude
What I Know At Sixty, I Knew As Well At Twenty. Forty Years Of A Long, Superfluous, Labor Of Verification.
Years
Long
Twenties
The Importance Of Insomnia Is So Colossal That I Am Tempted To Define Man As The Animal Who Cannot Sleep. Why Call Him A Rational Animal When Other Animals Are Equally Reasonable? But There Is Not Another Animal In The Entire Creation That Wants To Sleep Yet Cannot.
Sleep
Animal
Insomnia
I Have No Nationality - The Best Possible Status For An Intellectual.
Intellectual
Nationality
The Fear Of Your Own Solitude, Of Its Vast Surface And Its Infinity… Remorse Is The Voice Of Solitude. And What Does This Whispering Voice Say? Everything In Us That Is Not Human Anymore.
Voice
Solitude
Doe
My Mission Is To Kill Time, And Time's To Kill Me In Its Turn. How Comfortable One Is Among Murderers.
Missions
Kill Me
Murderer
The True Hero Fights And Dies In The Name Of His Destiny, And Not In The Name Of A Belief.
Hero
Fighting
Destiny
Life Inspires More Dread Than Death - It Is Life Which Is The Great Unknown.
Fear
Inspire
Dread
Everything Is Pathology, Except For Indifference.
Indifference
Pathology
I Have Decided Not To Oppose Anyone Ever Again, Since I Have Noticed That I Always End By Resembling My Latest Enemy.
Enemy
Ends
Decided
Chaos Is Rejecting All You Have Learned, Chaos Is Being Yourself.
Being Yourself
Chaos
Chaos In The World
Does Our Ferocity Not Derive From The Fact That Our Instincts Are All Too Interested In Other People? If We Attended More To Ourselves And Became The Center, The Object Of Our Murderous Inclinations, The Sum Of Our Intolerances Would Diminish.
People
Doe
Facts
All Philosophers Should End Their Days At Pythia's Feet. There Is Only One Philosophy, That Of Unique Moments.
Philosophy
Unique
Feet
If A Man Has Not, By The Time He Is Thirty, Yielded To The Fascination Of Every Form Of Extremism—i Don't Know Whether He Is To Be Admired Or Scorned, Regarded As A Saint Or A Corpse.
Men
Fascination
Saint
What Is That One Crucifixion Compared To The Daily Kind Any Insomniac Endures?
Insomnia
Kind
Endure
Tears Do Not Burn Except In Solitude.
Solitude
Tears
I Seem To Myself, Among Civilized Men, An Intruder, A Troglodyte Enamored Of Decrepitude, Plunged Into Subversive Prayers.
Prayer
Men
Civilized
Revenge Is Not Always Sweet, Once It Is Consummated We Feel Inferior To Our Victim.
Sweet
Revenge
Victim
Truths Begin By A Conflict With The Police - And End By Calling Them In.
Police
Calling
Conflict
The Mind Is The Result Of The Torments The Flesh Undergoes Or Inflicts Upon Itself.
Mind
Flesh
Results
What Are You Waiting For In Order To Give Up?
Giving Up
Order
Giving
Paradise Was Unendurable, Otherwise The First Man Would Have Adapted To It; This World Is No Less So, Since Here We Regret Paradise Or Anticipate Another One. What To Do? Where To Go? Do Nothing And Go Nowhere, Easy Enough.
Regret
Men
World
Time Is Heavy Sometimes; Imagine How Heavy Eternity Must Be.
Sometimes
Imagine
Eternity
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