Quotes from Thomas Mann

Gott verdamme den Frühling!

Want voor arbeid had hij het allergrootste respect, ofschoon hij er persoonlijk wel gauw moe van werd.

There are marriages whose raison d'être is beyond the grasp of even the most literary imagination. You have to accept them the way you put up with unbelievable couplings of opposites in the theater, such as old dodderers and vivacious beauties - relationships that are taken for granted and that form the basis for the mathematical structure of a farce.

Truth, and the freedom to seek it, are not luxury-products which enervate a people and unfit them for the struggle of life. They belong to life, they are life's daily bread.

În realitate, timpul nu are desp?rÈ›ituri, la începutul unei luni sau al unui nou an nu exist? nici tunete, nici furtuni, nici sunete de trâmbiÈ›e, È™i chiar È™i în zorii unui secol numai oamenii sunt cei care trag cu puÈ™ca È™i sun? din clopot.

Richard Wagner once declared that civilization disappears before music like mist before the sun. he never dreamed that one day, for its part, music would disappear before civilization, before democracy, like mist before the sun.

The capacity for self-surrender, he said, for becoming a tool, for the most unconditional and utter self-abnegation, was but the reverse side of that other power to will and to command. Commanding and obeying formed together one single principle, one indissoluble unity; he who knew how to obey knew also how to command, and conversely; the one idea was comprehended in the other, as people and leader were comprehended in one another.

Zal ook uit dit wereldfeest van de dood, ook uit deze vreselijke koortsgloed die overal rondom de regenachtige hemel in brand steekt, ooit de liefde opstijgen?

People, after all, only love and respect other people so long as they remain unable to judge them. Longing is a child of ignorance

Chi più ama è il più debole e deve soffrire.

It would lead him back, restore him to himself, but there is nothing so distasteful as being restored to oneself when one is beside oneself.

Knowledge never hurts.

Man begegnet einem Vorschlage nur dann mit Erregtheit, wenn man sich in seinem Widerstande nicht sicher fühlt...

Era voglia di viaggiare, nient'altro; ma sopraggiunta davvero come un accesso e cresciuta fino alla passione, addirittura all'inganno dei sensi.

Let no one tell me nothing is being communicated here! For the message to be inaccessible, and for one to immerse oneself in that contradiction—that also has its pleasure.

Burada hani öyle görülmedik bir güçlük de bulunmuyordu, aksine Aschenbach'?n elini kolunu baÄŸlayan ÅŸey, art?k hiçbir ÅŸeyle giderilemeyecek bir yetersizlik görünüÅŸündeki isteksizlikten doÄŸma kuruntulard?.

Terwijl ik dit opschrijf, zie ik het beeld voor me van een armzalige bedelaar die voor de etalage van een juwelier naar de glans van een kostbaar kleinood met edelstenen staart. Die man zal zich zelf nooit toestaan de wens uit te spreken dat hij dit sieraad wil bezitten; want alleen al de gedachte aan dat verlangen zou lachwekkend en onmogelijk zijn en zou hem voor zichzelf een voorwerp van spot maken.

Er een eind aan maken: maar zou dat niet haast een beetje heldhaftig zijn voor een 'paljas'? Het zal er wel op uitdraaien, ben ik bang, dat ik verder ga met leven, met eten en slapen, en me met het een of ander zoet te houden; en misschien zal ik er zo langzamerhand aan wennen en in schikken een 'ongelukkige en belachelijke figuur' te zijn.

Our receptivity to praise stands in no relationship to our vulnerability to mean disdain and spiteful abuse. No matter how stupid such abuse is, no matter how plainly impelled by private rancors, as an expression of hostility it occupies us far more deeply and lastingly than praise. Which is very foolish, since enemies are, of course, the necessary concomitant of any robust life, the very proof of its strength.

closing movement of the Cello Sonata in D, Op.

Casi todo lo grande que existe, existe como «a pesar de», y adquiere forma pese a la aflicción y a los tormentos, pese a la miseria, al abandono y a la debilidad física, pese al vicio, a la pasión y a mil impedimentos más.

thought Aschenbach. He's probably not long for this world. And he refused to analyze a certain feeling of satisfaction, or reassurance, which accompanied this thought. He

Lo scrittore è un uomo che più di chiunque altro ha difficoltà a scrivere.

Sorgenkind des Lebens