Quotes from Thomas Mann

Isn't it grand, isn't it good, that language has only one word for everything we associate with love - from utter sanctity to the most fleshly lust? The result is perfect clarity in ambiguity, for love cannot be disembodied even in its most sanctified forms, nor is it without sanctity even at its most fleshly. Love is always simply itself, both as a subtle affirmation of life and as the highest passion; love is our sympathy with organic life.

Only love, and not reason, yields kind thoughts.

One always has the idea of a stupid man as perfectly healthy and ordinary, and of illness as making one refined and clever and unusual.

We don't love qualities, we love persons; sometimes by reason of their defects as well as of their qualities.

We do not fear being called meticulous, inclining as we do to the view that only the exhaustive can be truly interesting.