Abstract: Though considered a sceptic and a nihilist, Cioran is not to be exhausted by these labels. The theme of holiness is an example of the practice of ambivalence and paradox, when strong negations escort recessive statements. The research discusses this theme of holiness in the reflections of Cioran, trying to reveal an affirmative Cioran. Though this is a weak side of his thinking, compared to its opposite side, much better shaped, based on negations, this one could help completing the image of the thinker, and introduce light and shade into the current notion of “cioranism” as used by critics today. Cioran is more than the “nihilist” or the “sceptic on charge in a declining world”; for the paradox to be complete, he is the one to admit the truth of holiness, though, for Cioran, the ineffectual saint, this would not be a truth to stick to.

Keywords: Cioran, holiness, nihilism, scepticism, God