---
title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Everything is pathology, except for…"
description: "\"Everything is pathology, except for indifference.\" — Emile M. Cioran"
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/28f/emile-m-cioran-1211_indifference_everything-is-pathology-except-for-indif_2756629.jpg"
---

#  Everything is pathology, except for indifference.

![“Everything is pathology, except for indifference.” quote by Emile M. Cioran](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/28f/emile-m-cioran-1211_indifference_everything-is-pathology-except-for-indif_2756629.jpg)   [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/28f/emile-m-cioran-1211_indifference_everything-is-pathology-except-for-indif_2756629.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/28f/emile-m-cioran-1211_indifference_everything-is-pathology-except-for-indif_2756629.jpg)

> “Everything is pathology, except for indifference.”

[Emile M. Cioran](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emile-m-cioran/)

## About This Quote

This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation.

All conditions are pathological except indifference, which remains neutral.

**In simple terms:** Indifference is the only non‑pathological state.

Key Takeaway

Recognize indifference as a neutral baseline.

Themes

existentialism psychology indifference

Mood

detached reflective

Type

philosophical cautionary

When to use this quote

- personal relationships
- societal analysis
- self‑care
- political engagement

Key Concepts

mental health philosophical nihilism

Questions to Reflect On

- When is indifference harmful?
- How can you transform indifference into constructive action?

A Different Perspective

Indifference can lead to apathy and neglect.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★   No ratings yet

[Indifference](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/indifference/) [Pathology](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/pathology/) [Pathology Indifference](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/pathology-indifference-3139560/)

## Related quotes

> [We know nothing of the principle of health, the positive of which pathology is the negative, except from observation and experience. And nothing but…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/florence-nightingale/we-know-nothing-of-the-principle-of-health-the-positive-of-which/)

[Florence Nightingale](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/florence-nightingale/)

> [When I first raised the issue of the so-called Islamic State at the Munich Security Conference in February, speaking about its economy, its flexibility…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ashraf-ghani/when-i-first-raised-the-issue-of-the-so-called-islamic-state-at-the/)

[Ashraf Ghani](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ashraf-ghani/)

> [The sick individual finds himself at home with all other similarly sick individuals. The whole culture is geared to this kind of pathology.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/erich-fromm/the-sick-individual-finds-himself-at-home-with-all-other-similarly/)

[Erich Fromm](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/erich-fromm/)

> [Growing older is mainly an ordeal of the imagination-a moral disease, a social pathology...](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/growing-older-is-mainly-an-ordeal-of-the-imagination-a-moral-disease/)

[Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/)

> [Liberals have been driven to the desperate expedient of attributing . . .social pathology in today's ghettos to 'a legacy of slavery' even though…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-sowell/liberals-have-been-driven-to-the-desperate-expedient-of-attributing/)

[Thomas Sowell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-sowell/)

> [The shock of unemployment becomes a pathology in its own right.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-farrar-capon/the-shock-of-unemployment-becomes-a-pathology-in-its-own-right/)

[Robert Farrar Capon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-farrar-capon/)

> [“The evolved preference for sugary and fatty foods (a functional mechanism) may lead to obesity because of a mismatch with modern nutrition (a maladaptive…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marco-del-giudice/the-evolved-preference-for-sugary-and-fatty-foods-a-functional/)

[Marco del Giudice](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marco-del-giudice/)

> [My nutritionist read my pathology report and said, "There's only one way you can beat your cancer." "What's that?" "You have to find out…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kathy-acker/my-nutritionist-read-my-pathology-report-and-said-there-s-only-one/)

[Kathy Acker](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kathy-acker/)

> [The attack on youth is a national pathology, unwarranted by fact, smokescreen for the failure of adulthood and its leadership to confront larger predicaments.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mike-a-males/the-attack-on-youth-is-a-national-pathology-unwarranted-by-fact/)

[Mike A. Males](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mike-a-males/)

> [As the many male victims of rape in the regime's disgusting jails can testify, this state-run pathology of sexual repression and sexual sadism is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/as-the-many-male-victims-of-rape-in-the-regime-s-disgusting-jails-can/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

> [“As a rule, sexually selected traits tend to be more condition-dependent --and thus more vulnerable to dysfunctions-- than other phenotypes. This contributes to explain…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marco-del-giudice/as-a-rule-sexually-selected-traits-tend-to-be-more-condition/)

[Marco del Giudice](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marco-del-giudice/)

> [Objection, evasion, joyous distrust, and love of irony are signs of health; everything absolute belongs to pathology.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/friedrich-nietzsche/objection-evasion-joyous-distrust-and-love-of-irony-are-signs-of/)

[Friedrich Nietzsche](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/friedrich-nietzsche/)

> [You cannot separate passion from pathology any more than you can separate a person's spirit from his body.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-selzer/you-cannot-separate-passion-from-pathology-any-more-than-you-can/)

[Richard Selzer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-selzer/)

> [“Memory research that supports a non-pathologizing, coherence-based model of symptom production in the wide range of cases where symptoms are generated by emotional memory.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bruce-ecker/memory-research-that-supports-a-non-pathologizing-coherence-based/)

[Bruce Ecker](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bruce-ecker/)

> [Neither a pathology nor an index as such of moral default, stupidity is nonetheless linked to the most dangerous failures of human endeavor.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/avital-ronell/neither-a-pathology-nor-an-index-as-such-of-moral-default-stupidity/)

[Avital Ronell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/avital-ronell/)

## More by Emile M. Cioran

> [What does the future, that half of time, matter to the man who is infatuated with eternity?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emile-m-cioran/what-does-the-future-that-half-of-time-matter-to-the-man-who-is/)

[Emile M. Cioran](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emile-m-cioran/)

> [Progress is the injustice each generation commits with regard to its predecessors.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emile-m-cioran/progress-is-the-injustice-each-generation-commits-with-regard-to-its/)

[Emile M. Cioran](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emile-m-cioran/)

> [To defy heredity is to defy billions of years, to defy the first cell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emile-m-cioran/to-defy-heredity-is-to-defy-billions-of-years-to-defy-the-first-cell/)

[Emile M. Cioran](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emile-m-cioran/)

> [A people represents not so much an aggregate of ideas and theories as of obsessions.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emile-m-cioran/a-people-represents-not-so-much-an-aggregate-of-ideas-and-theories-as/)

[Emile M. Cioran](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emile-m-cioran/)

> ["The Holy Ghost," Luther instructs us, "is not a skeptic." Not everyone can be, and that is really too bad.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emile-m-cioran/the-holy-ghost-luther-instructs-us-is-not-a-skeptic-not-everyone-can/)

[Emile M. Cioran](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emile-m-cioran/)

> [Every word affords me pain. Yet how sweet it would be if I could hear what the flowers have to say about death!](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emile-m-cioran/every-word-affords-me-pain-yet-how-sweet-it-would-be-if-i-could-hear/)

[Emile M. Cioran](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emile-m-cioran/)

> [Woes and wonders of Power, that tonic hell, synthesis of poison and panacea.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emile-m-cioran/woes-and-wonders-of-power-that-tonic-hell-synthesis-of-poison-and/)

[Emile M. Cioran](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emile-m-cioran/)

> [If each of us were to confess his most secret desire, the one that inspires all his plans, all his actions, he would say:…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emile-m-cioran/if-each-of-us-were-to-confess-his-most-secret-desire-the-one-that/)

[Emile M. Cioran](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emile-m-cioran/)

> [He who hates himself is not humble.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emile-m-cioran/he-who-hates-himself-is-not-humble/)

[Emile M. Cioran](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emile-m-cioran/)

> [Impossible to spend sleepless nights and accomplish anything: if, in my youth, my parents had not financed my insomnias, I should surely have killed…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emile-m-cioran/impossible-to-spend-sleepless-nights-and-accomplish-anything-if-in-my/)

[Emile M. Cioran](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emile-m-cioran/)

> [One is and remains a slave as long as one is not cured of hoping.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emile-m-cioran/one-is-and-remains-a-slave-as-long-as-one-is-not-cured-of-hoping/)

[Emile M. Cioran](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emile-m-cioran/)

> [Let us not be needlessly bitter: certain failures are sometimes fruitful.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emile-m-cioran/let-us-not-be-needlessly-bitter-certain-failures-are-sometimes/)

[Emile M. Cioran](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emile-m-cioran/)

> [Ambition is a drug that makes its addicts potential madmen.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emile-m-cioran/ambition-is-a-drug-that-makes-its-addicts-potential-madmen/)

[Emile M. Cioran](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emile-m-cioran/)

> [Humanity adores only those who cause it to perish.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emile-m-cioran/humanity-adores-only-those-who-cause-it-to-perish/)

[Emile M. Cioran](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emile-m-cioran/)

> [Psychoanalysis is a technique we practice at our cost; psychoanalysis degrades our risks, our dangers, our depths; it strips us of our impurities, of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emile-m-cioran/psychoanalysis-is-a-technique-we-practice-at-our-cost-psychoanalysis/)

[Emile M. Cioran](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emile-m-cioran/)

[Explore all 272 Emile M. Cioran quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emile-m-cioran/)

## More Indifference quotes

> [Violence is not necessary to destroy a civilization. Each civilization dies from indifference toward the unique values which created it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nicolas-gomez-davila/violence-is-not-necessary-to-destroy-a-civilization-each-civilization/)

[Nicolas Gomez Davila](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nicolas-gomez-davila/)

> [If Melanchthon were alive today, he might not weep because of controversies that surround the Lord's Supper, but he might well sorrow because of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/erwin-w-lutzer/if-melanchthon-were-alive-today-he-might-not-weep-because-of/)

[Erwin W. Lutzer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/erwin-w-lutzer/)

> [“Courage did not come from the need to survive, or from a brute indifference inherited from someone else, but from a driving need for…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gabriel-garc-a-m-rquez/courage-did-not-come-from-the-need-to-survive-or-from-a-brute/)

[Gabriel García Márquez](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gabriel-garc-a-m-rquez/)

> [Indifference is harder to fight than hostility, and there is nothing that kills an agitation like having everybody admit that it is fundamentally right.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/crystal-eastman/indifference-is-harder-to-fight-than-hostility-and-there-is-nothing/)

[Crystal Eastman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/crystal-eastman/)

> [Love and hate, despite their polar opposites, are both feelings that are induced by passion. I can handle that. It's the indifference I don't…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/colleen-hoover/love-and-hate-despite-their-polar-opposites-are-both-feelings-that/)

[Colleen Hoover](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/colleen-hoover/)

> [“I wasn't sure which I appreciated less—the insincere concern or the genuine indifference.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/arthur-graham/i-wasn-t-sure-which-i-appreciated-less-the-insincere-concern-or-the/)

[Arthur Graham](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/arthur-graham/)

> [If I were entering adulthood now instead of in the environment of fifty years ago, I would choose a career that kept me in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-lindbergh/if-i-were-entering-adulthood-now-instead-of-in-the-environment-of/)

[Charles Lindbergh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-lindbergh/)

> [Desire is half of life, indifference is half of death.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/desire-is-half-of-life-indifference-is-half-of-death/)

[Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/)

> [What's wrong with death sir? What are we so mortally afraid of? Why can't we treat death with a certain amount of humanity and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robin-williams/what-s-wrong-with-death-sir-what-are-we-so-mortally-afraid-of-why-can/)

[Robin Williams](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robin-williams/)

> [I'm not very interested in people. I recognize it in myself - there is a basic indifference toward people.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-didion/i-m-not-very-interested-in-people-i-recognize-it-in-myself-there-is-a/)

[Joan Didion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joan-didion/)

> [Adorn thyself with simplicity and with indifference towards the things which lie between virtue and vice. Love mankind. Follow God. The poet says that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcus-aurelius/adorn-thyself-with-simplicity-and-with-indifference-towards-the/)

[Marcus Aurelius](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcus-aurelius/)

> [One's own troubles can be borne with fortitude; only a monster of indifference can bear the sufferings of others with fortitude.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-ertz/one-s-own-troubles-can-be-borne-with-fortitude-only-a-monster-of/)

[Susan Ertz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-ertz/)

> [Many men without morals have attacked religion because it was contrary to their inclinations. Many wise men have despised it because it seemed to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/baron-d-holbach/many-men-without-morals-have-attacked-religion-because-it-was/)

[Baron d'Holbach](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/baron-d-holbach/)

> [Indifference to one's own faith is no proof of tolerance. Loyalty to one's own is part of a larger loyalty to faith generally.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/abba-hillel-silver/indifference-to-one-s-own-faith-is-no-proof-of-tolerance-loyalty-to/)

[Abba Hillel Silver](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/abba-hillel-silver/)

> [I know well, Monsieur, how much you have to endure in your present duty, and I ask Our Lord to strengthen you in your…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/vincent-de-paul/i-know-well-monsieur-how-much-you-have-to-endure-in-your-present-duty/)

[Vincent de Paul](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/vincent-de-paul/)

[Browse all 1,128 Indifference quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/indifference/)

```json
{
    "@context": "https://schema.org",
    "@graph": [
        {
            "@type": "Quotation",
            "text": "Everything is pathology, except for indifference.",
            "creator": {
                "@type": "Person",
                "name": "Emile M. Cioran"
            },
            "isPartOf": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website"
            },
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emile-m-cioran/everything-is-pathology-except-for-indifference/",
            "about": {
                "@type": "Thing",
                "name": "Indifference"
            },
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emile-m-cioran/everything-is-pathology-except-for-indifference/#quotation",
            "image": {
                "@type": "ImageObject",
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/28f/emile-m-cioran-1211_indifference_everything-is-pathology-except-for-indif_2756629.jpg",
                "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/28f/emile-m-cioran-1211_indifference_everything-is-pathology-except-for-indif_2756629.jpg",
                "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/28f/emile-m-cioran-1211_indifference_everything-is-pathology-except-for-indif_2756629.jpg",
                "width": 1080,
                "height": 1080,
                "caption": "“Everything is pathology, except for indifference.” — Emile M. Cioran",
                "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
                "creator": {
                    "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
                }
            }
        },
        {
            "@type": "BreadcrumbList",
            "itemListElement": [
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 1,
                    "name": "Home",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 2,
                    "name": "Quotes",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 3,
                    "name": "Emile M. Cioran",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emile-m-cioran/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 4,
                    "name": "Everything is pathology, except for indifference.",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emile-m-cioran/everything-is-pathology-except-for-indifference/"
                }
            ],
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emile-m-cioran/everything-is-pathology-except-for-indifference/#breadcrumb"
        },
        {
            "@type": "WebSite",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website",
            "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/",
            "publisher": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
            }
        },
        {
            "@type": "Organization",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization",
            "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/",
            "logo": {
                "@type": "ImageObject",
                "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png",
                "width": 512,
                "height": 512
            }
        }
    ]
}
```
