309 Quotes by Thomas Mann

Il vivait vite comme un mécanisme d'horloge qui se défend, il franchissait au galop les âges qu'il ne lui était pas accordé d'atteindre dans le temps, et durant les dernières vingt-quatre heures, il devint un vieillard.

For passion, like crime does not sit well with the sure order and even course of everyday life. It welcomes every loosening of the social fabric, every confusion and affliction visited upon the world, for passion sees in such a disorder a vague hope of finding advantage for itself.

There are so many different kinds of stupidity, and cleverness is one of the worst.

To be young means to be original, to have remained nearer to the sources of life: it means to be able to stand up and shake off the fetters of an outlived civilization, to dare -- where others lack the courage-- to plunge again into the elemental.

ვნება სიცოცხლისთვის სიცოცხლეს ნიშნავს, მამაკაცები კი განცდის გულისთვის ცოცხლობთ. ვნება თავდავიწყებაა, თქვენ კი მხოლოდ თვითგამდიდრების ჟინი გკლავთ. C’est ça. ნუთუ არც გიფიქრიათ, რომ ეს საზიზღარი ეგოიზმია და მისი წყალობით ერთ მშვენიერ დღეს კაცობრიობის მტრის როლში აღმოჩნდებით?

A lonely, quiet person has observations and experiences that are at once both more indistinct and more penetrating than those of one more gregarious; his thoughts are weightier, stranger, and never without a tinge of sadness. Images and perceptions that others might shrug off with a glance, a laugh, or a brief conversation occupy him unduly, become profound in his silence, become significant, become experience, adventure, emotion.

What they, in their innocence, cannot comprehend is that a properly constituted, healthy, decent man never writes, acts, or composes.

Wahrscheinlich kann man vom Nichtwollen seelisch nicht leben; eine Sache nicht tun wollen, das ist auf Dauer kein Lebensinhalt.

Yet he received this love with joy, surrendered himself to it, and cherished it with all the strength of his being; for he knew that love made one vital and rich, and he longed to be vital and rich, far more than he did to work tranquilly on anything to give it permanent form.