309 Quotes by Thomas Mann

Only love, and not reason, yields kind thoughts.

Everything is politics.

Thought that can merge wholly into feeling, feeling that can merge wholly into thought - these are the artist's highest joy.

This was love at first sight, love everlasting: a feeling unknown, unhoped for, unexpected--in so far as it could be a matter of conscious awareness; it took entire possession of him, and he understood, with joyous amazement, that this was for life.

Distance in a straight line has no mystery. The mystery is in the sphere.

No man remains quite what he was when he recognizes himself.

Technology and comfort - having those, people speak of culture, but do not have it.

The observations and encounters of a devotee of solitude and silence are at once less distinct and more penetrating than those of the sociable man; his thoughts are weightier, stranger, and never without a tinge of sadness. Images and perceptions which might otherwise be easily dispelled by a glance, a laugh, an exchange of comments, concern him unduly, they sink into mute depths, take on significance, become experiences, adventures, emotions.

We do not fear being called meticulous, inclining as we do to the view that only the exhaustive can be truly interesting.