Quotes from Thomas Mann

There will always be men who are justified in this interest in themselves, this detailed observation of their own emotions; poets who can express with clarity and beauty their privileged inner life, and thereby enrich the emotional world of other people.

Bei einem Volk von der Art des unsrigen", trug ich vor, "ist das Seelische immer das Primäre und eigentlich Motivierende; die politische Aktion ist zweiter Ordnung, Reflex, Ausdruck, Instrument.

Even on a personal level art is a form of heightened living. It gives greater pleasures, it consumes faster. It stamps the features of its servants with the signs of imaginary and spiritual adventures, and it produces, even in the most cloister-like atmosphere, a certain fastidiousness, an over-refinement, an exhaustion and curiosity of the nerves, in a way even a life of the most outrageous passions and delights could scarcely effect it.

Greatness! Extraordinariness! Conquest of the world and immortality of the name! What good was all the happiness of people eternally unknown compared with this goal?

Wußtest du nicht, daß man auch in einer kleinen Stadt ein großer Mann sein kann? Daß man ein Cäsar sein kann an einem mäßigen Handelsplatz an der Ostsee? Freilich, dazu gehört ein wenig Phantasie, ein wenig Idealismus ... und den besaßest du nicht, was du auch von dir selbst gedacht haben magst.

By now, his morality coincided with his curiosity, probably always had. It was the unconditional curiosity of the tourist thirsty for knowledge; a curiosity that, in having tasted the mystery of personality, had perhaps not been all that far from realms emerging here; a curiosity that displayed something of a military character by not trying to evade something forbidden if it might offer itself.

En faisant de la personnalité un mystère, vous courez le risque d'incliner à l'idolâtrie. Vous vénérez un masque. Vous voyez une mystique où il n'y a que mystification.

But fear of the overall damage that would be done—concern over the recently opened art exhibition in the Public Gardens and the tremendous losses with which the hotels, the shops, the entire, multifaceted tourist trade would be threatened in case of panic and loss of confidence—proved stronger in the city than the love of truth and respect for international covenants: it made the authorities stick stubbornly to their policy of secrecy and denial.

They walked, and the long waves rolled and murmured rhythmically beside them; the fresh salty wind blew free and unobstructed in their faces, wrapped itself around their ears, and made them feel slightly numb and deliciously dizzy. They walked along in that wide, peaceful, whispering hush of the sea that gives every sound, near or far, some mysterious importance.

Recreation, which is to say: a refreshing exercise of the organism, because it was in immediate danger of overindulging itself in the uninterrupted monotony of daily life and growing indifferent.

That was one of the advantages of his age, that he could be sure of his mastery in every moment.

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.

mas a gente se habitua ao fato de não se habituar.

Quem não for capaz de defender uma ideia com a sua própria vida, a força do seu braço, o correr do seu sangue, não está à altura dessa mesma ideia.

Mas Hans Castorp replicou que preferia possuir os livros, e que a leitura era bem diferente quando o livro lhe pertencia; além disso gostava de sublinhar e assinalar certos trechos a lápis.

No seu sorriso e na sua voz talvez transparecesse um pouco da emoção que se produz quando, depois de prolongadas relações mudas, se profere a primeira palavra; é uma emoção sutil que secretamente inclui o passado inteiro no momento presente.

for our sin God had visited our bodies with the gruesome ignominy of rot and decay, there was no indignity in the same body's receiving

Die Freiheit existiert, und auch der Wille existiert; aber die Willensfreiheit existiert nicht, denn ein Wille, der sich auf seine Freiheit richtet, stößt ins Leere.

The power of the word, with which the cast away is cast away, pronounces the turning away from all moral uncertainty, from every sympathy with the abyss, the reneging of that phrase of compassion, that "to understand all is to forgive all", and what was beginning here was that "wonder of the reborn impartiality", which was briefly mentioned in one of the author's dialogues with not a little mystery. What strange coherence!

La corrupción es como un pantano sin fondo: de ella se puede esperar todo.

Hans Castorp olhava em torno de si... Via coisas inquietantes, perniciosas, e sabia o que via diante de si: era a vida sem tempo, a vida sem cuidados nem esperanças, a vida como abjeção que se move à medida que estagna, a vida morta

Frau Stöhr, however, who happened to be sitting not all that far from the trio, had apparently abandoned herself to the film; her red, uneducated face was contorted with pleasure.

Amaba el mar por razones profundas: por la apetencia de reposo propia del artista sometido a un arduo trabajo, que ante la exigente pluralidad del mundo fenoménico anhela cobijarse en el seno de lo simple en inmenso, y también por una propensión ilícita -diametralmente opuesta a su tarea y, por eso mismo, seductora- hacia lo inarticulado, inconmensurable y eterno: hacia la nada.

Car lorsque les yeux parlent, ils tutoient, lors même que les lèvres n'ont pas encore prononcé un vous.