309 Quotes by Thomas Mann

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.

He always knows instantly whether I have chosen the wild or the world, directly I get outside the door.

He was young and had been rough with time, listening to its bad advice he had made mistakes, had compromised himself, had trespassed against good behavior and prudence, both in his words and works.

It could become much worse.

For I must tell you that we artists cannot tread the path of Beauty without Eros keeping company with us and appointing himself as our guide.

Psycho-analyses, how disgusting.

I never can understand how anyone can not smoke - it deprives a man of the best part of life. With a good cigar in his mouth a man is perfectly safe, nothing can touch him, literally.

The writer's joy is the thought that can become emotion, the emotion that can wholly become a thought.

Human reason needs only to will more strongly than fate, and she is fate.