"My mission is to kill time, and time's to kill me in its turn. How comfortable one is among murderers"

Emile M. Cioran succinctly captures the paradoxical struggle intrinsic to human existence by equating life itself with murder: the mutual and relentless contest between an individual's efforts to "kill time" and time's inexorable goal to extinguish life. The act of killing time often refers to the ways people seek distraction from the burdens of consciousness, routine, entertainment, work, and trivial pursuits. These activities are not just innocent pastimes; in Cioran's perspective, they are strategies to stave off the realization of one's own mortality, to occupy oneself while awaiting the inevitable. To "kill time" becomes a form of existential self-defense, an ongoing effort to avoid confronting the void or the terror of purposelessness.

Yet time, personified as a murderer, is never inactive. It is patient, omnipresent, persistently moving forward regardless of individual volition. No matter how much effort goes into making time pass or escaping discomfort, time remains victorious in the end; it erodes, ages, and finally annihilates. Thus, Cioran’s statement is not merely about the futility of trying to outrun or outsmart time but highlights the macabre irony that while we may attempt to "murder" our boredom or anxiety, time is actively plotting the more final murder of our physical existence.

The final phrase, "How comfortable one is among murderers", drips with black humor and fatalistic resignation. The company consists not only of others engaged in the same desperate game but also includes time itself, which is simultaneously an enemy and companion. There is an odd sense of camaraderie or relief in recognizing that the entire human condition is bound by this murderous relationship with time. Rather than denying or fearing it, Cioran suggests a bizarre solace and acceptance in living with such existential killers, finding a form of comfort in acknowledging the shared predicament of all conscious beings.