A Short History of Decay by Emil Cioran (1949)

This collection of nihilistic and terse essays from great Romanian Emil Cioran touches on everything from man's need to worship, the God's weaknesses, ancient society's downfalls and the futility of all existence. Luckily his timeless writing style softens the blow(s).

Some choice quotes:

"Try to be free: you will die of hunger."

"The authenticity of an existence consists in its own ruin"

"It is because we are all imposters that we endure each other"

"Life is possible only by the deficiencies of our imagination and our memory"

"Internal wealth results from conflicts sustained within oneself"