Quotes from Thomas Mann

familiar feeling pervaded the child: a strange, dreamy, troubling sense: of change in the midst of duration, of time as both flowing and persisting, of recurrence in continuity—these were sensations he had felt before on the like occasion, and both expected and longed for again, whenever the heirloom was displayed.

que fenômeno estranho vem a ser este que bloqueia e apaga a capacidade de julgar dos homens, que lhes furta esse direito ou os condiciona a abdicar, em absurda exultação, desse mesmo direito?

Quiere decir, malicioso? Sí, soy un poco malicioso –dijo Settembrini–. Lo que lamento es estar condenado a malgastar mi maldad en cosas tan miserables.

The world seemed spellbound in icy purity, its earthly blemishes veiled; it lay fixed in a deathlike, enchanted trance.

Jaki? dystyngowany l?k, ?e swymi pytaniami sprowokowa? zbyt wielk? poufa?o?? i dowie si? czego?, co go nic nie obchodzi, krzy?owa?a si? w nim z ju? rozbudzon? ciekawo?ci? i uwag?, z pragnieniem, by si? z tych ust dowiedzie? czego? wi?cej.

getting used to being up here consisted in getting used to not getting used

What was one day, taken for instance from the moment one sat down to the midday meal to the same moment four-and-twenty hours afterwards? It was, to be sure, four-and-twenty hours—but equally it was the simple sum of nothings.

They let him be. He was like the scholar in the peculiarly happy state of never being "asked" any more; of never having a task, of being left to sit, since the fact of his being left behind is established, and no one troubles about him further—an orgiastic kind of freedom, but we ask ourselves whether, indeed, freedom ever is or can be of any other kind.

Marusja of the ready laugh, the orange-scented handkerchief, the bosom fair to outward eye.

Men do not know why they award fame to one work of art rather than another. Without being in the faintest connoisseurs, they think to justify the warmth of their commendations by discovering it in a hundred virtues, whereas the real ground of their applause is inexplicable-it is sympathy.

I can imagine Herr Settembrini coming in suddenly and turning on the light, to let reason and convention reign—it is a weakness of his.

Now I know that it is not out of our single souls we dream. We dream anonymously and communally, if each after his fashion. The great soul of which we are a part may dream through us, in our manner of dreaming, its own secret dreams, of its youth, its hope, its joy and peace—and its blood-sacrifice. Here

Pois, em muitos casos, a loucura representava um relaxamento, uma vez que servia como refúgio a naturezas débeis e como medida de proteção contra golpes excessivamente graves do destino, que tais pessoas não se atreviam a suportar com lucidez.

Las palabras que designan un rasgo de carácter siempre tienen el alcance moral de un juicio, bien sea en forma de elogio, de censura o bajo ambos aspectos.

The past was only tolerable if one felt above it, instead of having to stare stupidly at it aware of one's present impotence.

La maldad, señor, es el espíritu de la crítica, y la crítica es el origen del progreso y la ilustración.

Een schrijver is een persoon voor wie schrijven moeilijker is dan voor andere mensen.

You are stronger than I. I have no armour for the struggle between us, I have only the Word, avenging weapon of the weak. Today I have availed myself of this weapon. This letter is nothing but an act of revenge - you see how honourable I am - and if any word of mine is sharp and bright and beautiful enough to strike home, to make you feel the presence of a power you do not know, to shake even a minute your robust equilibrium, I shall rejoice indeed." - Tristan

a phenomenon conveyed by matter, like the rainbow on the waterfall

The discipline and elegance, the hushed serenity and intellectual challenge, the well-ordered and well-tended life, the precise yet richly varied schedule—it all spoke to Leo's profoundest instincts.

Hidden away among Aschenbach's writings was a passage directly asserting that nearly all the great things that exist owe their existence to a defiant despite: it is despite grief and anguish, despite poverty, loneliness, bodily weakness, vice and passion and a thousand inhibitions, that they have come into being at all. But this was more than an observation, it was an experience, it was positively the formula of his life and his fame, the key to his work;

life of service and humility, of silent subordination and religious training, from which he wrested intellectual pleasures congruent with his

Democracy is eternal and human. It dignifies the human being; it respects humanity.

If I can contradict you at all, if I can defend your own profession a little against you, it is not by saying anything new, but simply by reminding you of some things you very well know yourself: of the purifying and healing influence of letters, the subduing of the passions by knowledge and eloquence; literature as the guide to understanding, forgiveness, and love, the redeeming power of the word, literary art as the noblest manifestation of the human mind...