---
title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Life creates itself in delirium and is…"
description: "\"Life creates itself in delirium and is undone in ennui.\" — Emile M. Cioran"
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c97/emile-m-cioran-1211_delirium_life-creates-itself-in-delirium-and-is-u_266133.jpg"
---

#  Life creates itself in delirium and is undone in ennui.

![“Life creates itself in delirium and is undone in ennui.” quote by Emile M. Cioran](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c97/emile-m-cioran-1211_delirium_life-creates-itself-in-delirium-and-is-u_266133.jpg)   [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c97/emile-m-cioran-1211_delirium_life-creates-itself-in-delirium-and-is-u_266133.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c97/emile-m-cioran-1211_delirium_life-creates-itself-in-delirium-and-is-u_266133.jpg)

> “Life creates itself in delirium and is undone in ennui.”

[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.

Existence oscillates between chaotic creation and the boredom that erodes meaning.

**In simple terms:** Life swings between frenzy and boredom.

Key Takeaway

Embrace both chaos and calm.

Themes

existence creativity boredom

Mood

melancholic thoughtful

Type

philosophical reflective

When to use this quote

- artistic work
- daily routine
- mental health
- philosophical inquiry

Key Concepts

nihilism existentialism

Questions to Reflect On

- What fuels your creative bursts?
- How do you combat ennui?

A Different Perspective

Boredom can stifle creativity if not managed.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★   No ratings yet

[Ennui](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/ennui/) [Life](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/life/)

## Related quotes

> [“Terror came. I would fall into a slumber of days, and getting up would go on with the same sad dreams. I was ripe…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/arthur-rimbaud/terror-came-i-would-fall-into-a-slumber-of-days-and-getting-up-would/)

[Arthur Rimbaud](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/arthur-rimbaud/)

> [Ennui is the echo in us of time tearing itself apart.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emile-m-cioran/ennui-is-the-echo-in-us-of-time-tearing-itself-apart/)

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

> [ Neil \[Gaiman, creator of the comic Sandman, featuring the Amos-based character Delirium\] believes that faeries have gone beyond cool. They've transcended cool. I just… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tori-amos/neil-gaiman-creator-of-the-comic-sandman-featuring-the-amos-based/)

[Tori Amos](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tori-amos/)

> [Poe is a kind of Hawthorne and delirium tremens.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/leslie-stephen/poe-is-a-kind-of-hawthorne-and-delirium-tremens/)

[Leslie Stephen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/leslie-stephen/)

> [The text moves like a small crustacean with compound eye and complex nervous system; throbbing, involuted, it becomes a parasite on a different body,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nicole-brossard/the-text-moves-like-a-small-crustacean-with-compound-eye-and-complex/)

[Nicole Brossard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nicole-brossard/)

> [“Any drinker knows how the process works: the first day you get drunk is okay, the morning after means a big head but so…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jack-kerouac/any-drinker-knows-how-the-process-works-the-first-day-you-get-drunk/)

[Jack Kerouac](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jack-kerouac/)

> [“All those years I’d drifted along too glassy and insulated for any kind of reality to push through: a delirium which had spun me…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/donna-tartt/all-those-years-i-d-drifted-along-too-glassy-and-insulated-for-any/)

[Donna Tartt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/donna-tartt/)

> [To hell with reality! I want to die in music, not in reason or in prose.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/louis-ferdinand-celine/to-hell-with-reality-i-want-to-die-in-music-not-in-reason-or-in-prose/)

[Louis-Ferdinand Celine](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/louis-ferdinand-celine/)

> [I'd rather die on my own terms than live on theirs. I'd rather die loving Alex than live without him.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lauren-oliver/i-d-rather-die-on-my-own-terms-than-live-on-theirs-i-d-rather-die/)

[Lauren Oliver](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lauren-oliver/)

> [“Food for the body, milk for your bones, ice for the bleeding, a belly of stones.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/food-for-the-body-milk-for-your-bones-ice-for-the-bleeding-a-belly-of/)

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

> [I wish I could close my eyes and be blown into dust and nothingness, feel all my thoughts disperse like dandelion fluff drifting off…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lauren-oliver/i-wish-i-could-close-my-eyes-and-be-blown-into-dust-and-nothingness-2/)

[Lauren Oliver](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lauren-oliver/)

> [The greatest part of mankind labor under one delirium or another; and Don Quixote differed from the rest, not in madness, but the species…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-fielding/the-greatest-part-of-mankind-labor-under-one-delirium-or-another-and/)

[Henry Fielding](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-fielding/)

> [God is a spirit. Jesus was led up of the Spirit to be tempted of the Devil; and it is also true that spirits…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-bradlaugh/god-is-a-spirit-jesus-was-led-up-of-the-spirit-to-be-tempted-of-the/)

[Charles Bradlaugh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-bradlaugh/)

> [You know the best thing about aeroplanes? Apart from the peanuts in little silver bags, I mean. It's looking out of the windows at…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/neil-gaiman/you-know-the-best-thing-about-aeroplanes-apart-from-the-peanuts-in/)

[Neil Gaiman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/neil-gaiman/)

> [“I wish I could close my eyes and be blown into dust and nothingness, feel all my thoughts disperse like dandelion fluff drifting off…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lauren-oliver/i-wish-i-could-close-my-eyes-and-be-blown-into-dust-and-nothingness/)

[Lauren Oliver](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lauren-oliver/)

## 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 Delirium quotes

> [“I wish I could close my eyes and be blown into dust and nothingness, feel all my thoughts disperse like dandelion fluff drifting off…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lauren-oliver/i-wish-i-could-close-my-eyes-and-be-blown-into-dust-and-nothingness/)

[Lauren Oliver](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lauren-oliver/)

> [You know the best thing about aeroplanes? Apart from the peanuts in little silver bags, I mean. It's looking out of the windows at…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/neil-gaiman/you-know-the-best-thing-about-aeroplanes-apart-from-the-peanuts-in/)

[Neil Gaiman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/neil-gaiman/)

> [God is a spirit. Jesus was led up of the Spirit to be tempted of the Devil; and it is also true that spirits…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-bradlaugh/god-is-a-spirit-jesus-was-led-up-of-the-spirit-to-be-tempted-of-the/)

[Charles Bradlaugh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-bradlaugh/)

> [The greatest part of mankind labor under one delirium or another; and Don Quixote differed from the rest, not in madness, but the species…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-fielding/the-greatest-part-of-mankind-labor-under-one-delirium-or-another-and/)

[Henry Fielding](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-fielding/)

> [I wish I could close my eyes and be blown into dust and nothingness, feel all my thoughts disperse like dandelion fluff drifting off…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lauren-oliver/i-wish-i-could-close-my-eyes-and-be-blown-into-dust-and-nothingness-2/)

[Lauren Oliver](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lauren-oliver/)

> [“Food for the body, milk for your bones, ice for the bleeding, a belly of stones.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/food-for-the-body-milk-for-your-bones-ice-for-the-bleeding-a-belly-of/)

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

> [I'd rather die on my own terms than live on theirs. I'd rather die loving Alex than live without him.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lauren-oliver/i-d-rather-die-on-my-own-terms-than-live-on-theirs-i-d-rather-die/)

[Lauren Oliver](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lauren-oliver/)

> [To hell with reality! I want to die in music, not in reason or in prose.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/louis-ferdinand-celine/to-hell-with-reality-i-want-to-die-in-music-not-in-reason-or-in-prose/)

[Louis-Ferdinand Celine](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/louis-ferdinand-celine/)

> [“All those years I’d drifted along too glassy and insulated for any kind of reality to push through: a delirium which had spun me…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/donna-tartt/all-those-years-i-d-drifted-along-too-glassy-and-insulated-for-any/)

[Donna Tartt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/donna-tartt/)

> [“Any drinker knows how the process works: the first day you get drunk is okay, the morning after means a big head but so…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jack-kerouac/any-drinker-knows-how-the-process-works-the-first-day-you-get-drunk/)

[Jack Kerouac](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jack-kerouac/)

> [The text moves like a small crustacean with compound eye and complex nervous system; throbbing, involuted, it becomes a parasite on a different body,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nicole-brossard/the-text-moves-like-a-small-crustacean-with-compound-eye-and-complex/)

[Nicole Brossard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nicole-brossard/)

> [Poe is a kind of Hawthorne and delirium tremens.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/leslie-stephen/poe-is-a-kind-of-hawthorne-and-delirium-tremens/)

[Leslie Stephen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/leslie-stephen/)

> [ Neil \[Gaiman, creator of the comic Sandman, featuring the Amos-based character Delirium\] believes that faeries have gone beyond cool. They've transcended cool. I just… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tori-amos/neil-gaiman-creator-of-the-comic-sandman-featuring-the-amos-based/)

[Tori Amos](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tori-amos/)

> [“Sister? Where should we start?" "Here?" "Very good. We are here. Where should we travel to now?" "...somewhere that's not here?" "That was the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/neil-gaiman/sister-where-should-we-start-here-very-good-we-are-here-where-should/)

[Neil Gaiman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/neil-gaiman/)

> [“Find the things that matter, and hold on to them, and fight for them, and refuse to let them go.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lauren-oliver/find-the-things-that-matter-and-hold-on-to-them-and-fight-for-them/)

[Lauren Oliver](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lauren-oliver/)

Browse all 145 Delirium quotes

```json
{
    "@context": "https://schema.org",
    "@graph": [
        {
            "@type": "Quotation",
            "text": "Life creates itself in delirium and is undone in ennui.",
            "creator": {
                "@type": "Person",
                "name": "Emile M. Cioran"
            },
            "isPartOf": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website"
            },
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emile-m-cioran/life-creates-itself-in-delirium-and-is-undone-in-ennui/",
            "about": {
                "@type": "Thing",
                "name": "Delirium"
            },
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emile-m-cioran/life-creates-itself-in-delirium-and-is-undone-in-ennui/#quotation",
            "image": {
                "@type": "ImageObject",
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c97/emile-m-cioran-1211_delirium_life-creates-itself-in-delirium-and-is-u_266133.jpg",
                "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c97/emile-m-cioran-1211_delirium_life-creates-itself-in-delirium-and-is-u_266133.jpg",
                "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c97/emile-m-cioran-1211_delirium_life-creates-itself-in-delirium-and-is-u_266133.jpg",
                "width": 1080,
                "height": 1080,
                "caption": "“Life creates itself in delirium and is undone in ennui.” — 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": "Life creates itself in delirium and...",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emile-m-cioran/life-creates-itself-in-delirium-and-is-undone-in-ennui/"
                }
            ],
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emile-m-cioran/life-creates-itself-in-delirium-and-is-undone-in-ennui/#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
            }
        }
    ]
}
```