All important things bear the sign of death: Haven't people learned yet that the time of superficial intellectual games is over, that agony is infinitely more important than syllogism, that a cry of despair is more revealing than the most subtle thought, and that tears always have deeper roots than smiles?

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "All important things bear the sign of death: Haven't people learned yet that the time of superficial intellectual games is over, that agony is infinitely more important than syllogism, that a cry of despair is more revealing than the most subtle thought, and that tears always have deeper roots than smiles?" in the context of "Emil Cioran in On the Heights of Despair, University of Chicago Press, 15 June 1992, p. 25" to mean that wisdom is timeless.