# Quote — Emil Cioran, A Short History of Decay

> Ideas should be neutral. But man animates them with his passions and folly. Impure and turned into beliefs, they take on the appearance of reality. The passage from logic is consummated. Thus are born ideologies, doctrines, and bloody farce.

- 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/ideas-should-be-neutral

## 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)