# Quote — Emil Cioran, A Short History of Decay

> History shows that the thinkers who mounted on the top of the ladder of questions, who set their foot on the last rung, that of the absurd, have bequeathed to posterity only an example of sterility.

- Author: [Emil Cioran](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran.md)
- Book: [A Short History of Decay](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/a-short-history-of-decay.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emil_Cioran#A_Short_History_of_Decay_(1949)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/a-short-history-of-decay/history-shows-that

## More from this book

> So long as man is protected by madness he functions and flourishes, but when he frees himself from the fruitful tyranny of fixed ideas, he is lost, ruined.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/a-short-history-of-decay/so-long-as-man.md)

> I find in myself as much evil as in anyone, but detesting action — mother of all vices — I am the cause of no one's suffering.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/a-short-history-of-decay/i-find-in-myself.md)

> Man starts over again everyday, in spite of all he knows, against all he knows.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/a-short-history-of-decay/man-starts-over.md)