The book's original French title was Syllogismes de l'amerture (literally, Syllogisms of Bitterness), translated by Richard Howard as All Gall is Divided.

Some items include one or two declarations, followed by a loosely related conclusion: At the nadir of our failures, we suddenly grasp the essence of death; — a limit-perception, refractory to expression; a metaphysical defeat which words cannot perpetuate.

[7] For Cioran, ancient astronomers who pass into obscurity are preferable to well-documented historical figures, because the latter frequently achieve their notability through warfare and atrocities.

In Tears and Saints, Cioran's longer version of the passage continued, acknowledging both types of society: A nation that loves neither the sky nor earthly conquests should not be allowed to live.

— And although there was a time when I envied those Egyptian monks who dug their own graves in order to shed tears within them, if I were to dig mine now, all I would drop in there would be cigarette butts.

[10]Publishers Weekly called All Gall is Divided Cioran's "existential equivalent" to The Devil's Dictionary, and described its writing as "aridly clever" and "laconic and intense".

[11] Patrick Madden noted that the aphorisms of All Gall is Divided "drip with cynicism and despair", and described Cioran as an "irascible rascal, mischievously spreading his seeds of discord and discontent, but he does so so beautifully that a reader welcomes the fragmentary soliloquy between the pages, learns from it, changes from it.

"[12] In a 1999 New York Times review, Albert Mobilio praised the translation of All Gall is Divided, comparing Cioran's idiosyncrasy to that of Cosmo Kramer.

Mobilio stated that the "faux naif quality invests the act of dying with a slippery comedy that in true double-take fashion actually heightens the seriousness.

[14] All Gall is Divided sold 2,000 copies within the first twenty years of its release, which Cioran called "a big success", and said it was his most read book in France.