Quotes from Thomas Mann

My God, I am a humanist, a homo humanus , and understand nothing of such ingenious matters, however sincere my deep respect for them.

Güzellik ve ruhun, heyecan ve coÅŸkuda birleÅŸmesi gibi, yaÅŸam ve ölüm de aÅŸkta birleÅŸir.

Seguramente conviene que el mundo conozca sólo la obra bella y no sus orígenes, las condiciones que determinaron su aparición, pues el conocimiento de las fuentes en que el poeta bebe su inspiración lo confundiría, lo asustaría a menudo, dañando así el efecto de las cosas excelentes.

On a personal level, too, art is life intensified: it delights more rapidly; it engraves the traces of imaginary and intellectual adventure on the countenance of its servant and in the long run, for all the monastic calm of his external existence, leads to self-indulgence, over refinement, lethargy, and a restless curiosity that a lifetime of wild passions and pleasures could scarcely engender.

Let me tell you the whole truth: if ever Fascism should come to America, it will come in the name of freedom.

Yet nothing would seem to dull a deft an noble intellect more swiftly, more surely than the sharp and bitter stimulant of erudition, and clearly the adolescent's melancholic and ever so conscientious thoroughness is shallow when compared with the profound resolve of the mature master to deny knowledge, disavow it, put it behind him, head high, lest it should in the slightest maim, discourage, or debase the will, action, feeling, and even passion.

Celui qui a contemplé la Beauté est déjà prédestiné à la mort.

the mysterious connection that must be established between the generic and the particular to produce human beauty

Recommencer depuis le commencement ? Mais cela ne servirait de rien. Ce serait de nouveau pareil - tout ce qui est arrivé arriverait encore. Car certains être s'égarent nécessairement parce qu'il n'y a pas pour eux de vrai chemin.

Verità e ragione possono bensì essere oppresse esteriormente per un periodo nero, ma in noi rimangono eternamente libere e dalla serena altezza dell'arte lo spirito può ridersi dell'assurdo che vince, e non già in solitario abbandono, ma in sicura alleanza con tutti i migliori.

Bien que le discours puisse agir d'une manière plus vivante et plus immédiate, la parole écrite n'en a pas moins cet avantage de pouvoir être méditée et formulée à loisir et à tête reposée, de rester immuable et de pouvoir être relue à volonté dans les termes et dans l'ordre que le signataire a soigneusement pesés et calculés, et partant, de conserver toujours la même efficacité

Ich wiederhole: Der Fortschritt hat alles für sich. Nur scheinbar ist er die Opposition. Der erhaltende Gegenwille ist es, der in Wahrheit immer und überall die Opposition bildet, der sich in der Verteidigung befindet und zwar in einer, wie er genau weiss, aussichtslosen Verteidigung.

Renunciation is our compact with the Muse; in it reposes our strength, our value; and life is our forbidden garden, our great temptation, to which we yield sometimes, but never to our profit.

Zar nije svaki ?ovek po jedna omaška i promašaj? Zar on, ve? kako se rodi, ne dospeva u mu?no zato?enje? Robija! Robija! Okovi i stege na sve strane! Kroz rešetke svoje individualnosti žuri ?ovek beznadno, na kružni zid spoljnih okolnosti, sve dok smrt ne do?e i ne zovne ga nazad u zavi?aj i slobodu...

era como una estrofa de un poema primitivo que hablara de los tiempos originarios, del comienzo de la forma y del nacimiento de los dioses.

I am also suffering both physically and psychically from the fact that all No. 4 underwear is now too small for me, No. 5 too big. -- Diary entry, November 20, 1921

It seems to me, however, that despite the logical, moral rigor music may appear to display, it belongs to a world of spirits, for whose absolute reliability in matters of human reason and dignity I would not exactly want to put my hand in the fire. That I am nevertheless devoted to it with all my heart is one of those contradictions which, whether a cause for joy or regret, are inseparable from human nature.

Numai moartea îi putea îndupleca pe alÈ›ii s? se închine în faÈ›a suferinÈ›elor noastre, numai prin ea suferinÈ›ele cele mai meschine devin demne de respect.

War! It is purification, liberation, an enormous hope. . . . The victory of Germany will be a paradox, nay, a wonder: a victory of the soul over numbers. . . . The German soul is opposed to the pacifist ideal of civilization, for is not peace the element, of civil corruption?

ceea ce te'nalta, ceea ce iti sporeste sentimentul de putere si vigoare si dominare, la dracu asta'i adevarul – chiar daca vazut din punctul de vedere al moralei ar fi de zece ori minciuna. ce vreau sa spun este ca un neadevar de natura a produce o sporire a puterii se poate masura cu orice adevar virtuos dar sterp.

Reposar en la perfección es el anhelo de todo el que se esfuerza por alcanzar lo sublime; y ¿no es acaso la nada una forma de perfección?

He was more beautiful than words can say, and Aschenbach felt painfully, as he had often done, that words are able to praise physical beauty but not to reproduce it.

That music is ambiguity as a system. Take this note or this one. You can understand it like this or, again, like this, can perceive it as augmented from below or as diminished from above, and, being the sly fellow you are, you can make use of its duplicity just as you like.

Para todo amigo de la ilustración, la palabra «pueblo» y su concepto mismo conservan algo de primitivo que causa aprensión y es porque se sabe que basta tratar de pueblo a la multitud para predisponerla a actos de regresiva maldad. Ante nuestros ojos, o lejos de ellos, ¿cuántas cosas no han ocurrido en nombre del pueblo que no hubiesen podido ocurrir en nombre de dios, de la humanidad o del derecho?