Quotes from Thomas Mann

There are people with whom it is not easy to live, but whom it is impossible to leave.

Nicht alles, was langwierig ist, ist langweilig.' (Thomas Mann to his prospective publisher, in reference to the MS of the novel Buddenbrooks - cited by the Thomas Mann Buddenbrookhaus in Lübeck).

For the sake of goodness and love, man shall grant death no dominion over his thoughts.

Se dice que esperar es siempre largo. Pero también es igualmente corto, porque se devoran cantidades de tiempo sin que se las viva ni se las utilice en sí mismas.

Death alone can make others respect our sufferings; and through death the most pitiable sufferings acquire dignity.

It's a craving that shouldn't even exist, and yet you can't wish it didn't exist. Once it has hold of you, you can't wish it away, because you'd have to wish your life away, it's so bound up with it, and you can't do that—what good would dying do? Afterward—with pleasure. In her arms—only too gladly. But before? That's nonsense, because life is desire, and desire is life, and life can't be its own enemy.

Very likely even his splendid coloration is a little too marked and would be objected to by those who put the laws of breeding above the value of personality, for it would appear that the classic pointer type should have a coat of one colour or at most with spots of a different one, but never stripes.

En el hombre está comprendida la naturaleza entera, sólo él fue creado auténticamente en toda la naturaleza, y toda la naturaleza fue creada sólo para él. El hombre es la medida de todas las cosas y su felicidad es el criterio de la verdad.

La alegría, la sorpresa y la admiración debieron de reflejarse claramente en él cuando su mirada se cruzó con la del añorado ausente, y en ese mismo instante Tadzio sonrió.

Die Gewohnheit ist ein Seil. Wir weben jeden Tag einen Faden, und schließlich können wir es nicht mehr zerreißen.

I get an odd, intimate, and amusing sensation from having him sit on my foot and warm it with the blood-heat of his body. A pervasive feeling of sympathy and good cheer fills me, as almost invariably when in his company and looking at things from his angle.

Sin embargo, no puede decirse que sufriera. Su cabeza y corazón estaban ebrios, y sus pasos seguían las indicaciones del demonio, que se complace en conculcar la dignidad y la razón del ser humano.

Le temps est un don des dieux, prêté à l'homme pour qu'il en tire parti, pour qu'il en tire un parti utile, ingénieur, au service du progrès de l'humanité.

Mais ce qu'il éprouvait, ce qu'il comprenait, et ce dont il jouissait par-dessus tout, [...] c'était l'idéalité triomphante de la musique, de l'art, du cÅ"ur humain, la haute et irréfutable sublimation qu'ils faisaient subir à la vulgaire laideur de la réalité.

C'est un fait que nous ne venons de soulever la question de savoir s'il est possible de raconter le temps, que pour avouer que c'était bien là notre dessein dans l'histoire en cours.

m. He has waited so long-and we all know what torture waiting can be! His whole life is waiting-waiting for the next walk in the open, a waiting that begins as soon as he is rested from the last one. Even his night consists of waiting; for his sleep is distributed throughout the whole twenty-four hours of the day, with many a little nap on the grass in the garden, the sun shining down warm on his coat, or behind the curtains of his kennel, to break up and shorten the empty spaces of the day.

Where uniformity reigns, movement from point to point is no longer movement; and where movement is no longer movement, there is no time.

Piety is the privatization of the world as the story of one's self and one's salvation, and without the, yes, sometimes offensive conviction that one is the object of God's special, and indeed exclusive care, without the rearrangement that places oneself and one's salvation at the center of all things, there is no piety—that is, in fact, what defines this very powerful virtue.

It all comes to this: if you take care not to be a man of action, if you seek peace in solitude, you will find that life's vicissitudes fall upon you from within and it is upon that stage you must prove yourself a hero or a fool.

Aunque no tuviera yo el mar y la playa, permanecería aquí mientras tú no te fueras.

What is success? A mysterious, indescribable power—a vigilance, a readiness, the awareness that simply by my presence I can exert pressure on the movements of life around me, the belief that life can be molded to my advantage.

Niemand kan zich voorstellen hoe innig en zorgzaam hij, die afstand had gedaan van het grootste geluk dat het leven ons kan schenken, van de vreugden wist te genieten die wel voor hem waren weggelegd.

Once in my life I had pomegranate juice and soda; it was too sweet.

Toleranz wird zum Verbrechen, wenn sie dem Bösen gilt.