# Quote — Emil Cioran, The Trouble With Being Born

> Self-knowledge — the bitterest knowledge of all and also the kind we cultivate least: what is the use of catching ourselves out, morning to night, in the act of illusion, pitilessly tracing each act back to its root, and losing case after case before our own tribunal?

- Author: [Emil Cioran](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran.md)
- Book: [The Trouble With Being Born](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emil_Cioran#The_Trouble_With_Being_Born_(1973)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born/self-knowledge-the-bitterest

## More from this book

> Only one thing matters: learning to be the loser.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born/only-one-thing.md)

> Obviously God was a solution, and obviously none so satisfactory that will ever be found again.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born/obviously-god-was.md)

> To have failed in everything, always, out of a love of discouragement.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born/to-have-failed.md)