Thomas Mann Quotes


Order and simplification are the first steps toward the master of a subject. The actual enemy is the unknown. Thomas Mann Order 130
You ask what is the use of classification, arrangement, systemization? I answer you: order and simplification are the first steps toward the mastery of a subject-the actual enemy is the unknown. Thomas Mann Mystery 127
It is a strange fact that freedom and equality, the two basic ideas of democracy, are to some extent contradictory. Logically considered, freedom and equality are mutually exclusive, just as society and the individual are mutually exclusive. Thomas Mann Equality 117
War is only a cowardly escape from the problems of peace. Thomas Mann War 109
Speech is civilization itself. The word... preserves contact -- it is silence which isolates. Thomas Mann Conversation 98
Time has no divisions to mark its passage, there is never a thunder-storm or blare of trumpets to announce the beginning of a new month or year. Even when a new century begins it is only we mortals who ring bells and fire off pistols. Thomas Mann Time 92
The Freudian theory is one of the most important foundation stones for an edifice to be built by future generations, the dwelling of a freer and wiser humanity. Thomas Mann Built 90
All interest in disease and death is only another expression of interest in life. Thomas Mann death 89
For to be poised against fatality, to meet adverse conditions gracefully, is more than simple endurance; it is an act of aggression, a positive triumph. Thomas Mann Act 88
Has the world ever been changed by anything save the thought and its magic vehicle the Word? Thomas Mann Uncategorized 86
Innate in nearly every artistic nature is a wanton treacherous penchant for accepting injustice when it creates beauty and showing sympathy for and paying homage to aristocratic privilege. Thomas Mann Wealth 82
This was love at first sight, love everlasting: a feeling unknown, unhoped for, unexpected - in so far as it could be a matter of conscious awareness; it took entire possession of him, and he understood, with joyous amazement, that this was for life. Thomas Mann Love 82
But my deepest and most secret love belongs to the fair-haired and the blue-eyed, the bright children of life, the happy, the charming and the ordinary. Thomas Mann Blue-eyed 81
I never can understand how anyone can not smoke it deprives a man of the best part of life. With a good cigar in his mouth a man is perfectly safe, nothing can touch him, literally. Thomas Mann Anyone 80
A man lives not only his personal life, as an individual, but also, consciously or unconsciously, the life of his epoch and his contemporaries. Thomas Mann Life 79
Democracy is eternal and human. It dignifies the human being; it respects humanity. Thomas Mann Democracy 78
Tolerance becomes a crime when applied to evil. Thomas Mann Tolerance 77
For I must tell you that we artists cannot tread the path of Beauty without Eros keeping company with us and appointing himself as our guide. Thomas Mann beauty 76
A great truth is a truth whose opposite is also a truth. Thomas Mann Truth 74
For the beautiful word begets the beautiful deed. Thomas Mann Uncategorized 74
What a wonderful phenomenon it is, carefully considered, when the human eye, that jewel of organic structures, concentrates its moist brilliance on another human creature! Thomas Mann Another 74
Is not the pastness of the past the more profound the more legendary the more immediately it falls before the present Thomas Mann Past 72
An art whose medium is language will always show a high degree of critical creativeness, for speech is itself a critique of life: it names, it characterizes, it passes judgment, in that it creates. Thomas Mann Art 72
What is uttered is finished and done with. Thomas Mann Speeches 69
Respectable means rich, and decent means poor. I should die if I heard my family called decent. Thomas Mann Family 68
All interest in disease and death is only another expression of interest in life. Thomas Mann Medicine 68
Every reasonable human being should be a moderate Socialist. Thomas Mann Communism 68
Wahrscheinlich kann man vom Nichtwollen seelisch nicht leben eine Sache nicht tun wollen das ist auf Dauer kein Lebensinhalt. Thomas Mann Resistance 67
There is something suspicious about music, gentlemen. I insist that she is, by her nature, equivocal. I shall not be going too far in saying at once that she is politically suspect. Thomas Mann Nature 67
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. Thomas Mann Clever 66
The only religious way to think of death is as part and parcel of life. Thomas Mann death 62
Order and simplification are the first steps towards the mastery of a subject. Thomas Mann Simplicity 58
Solitude gives birth to the original in us, to beauty unfamiliar and perilous - to poetry. But also, it gives birth to the opposite: to the perverse, the illicit, the absurd. Thomas Mann Beauty 58
If you are possessed by an idea, you find it expressed everywhere, you even smell it. Thomas Mann Ideas 58
Only he who desires is amiable and not he who is satiated. Thomas Mann Amiable 58
Time has no division to mark its passage, there is never a thunderstorm or blare of trumpets to announce the beginning of a new month or year. Even when a new century begins it is only we mortals who ring bells and fire pistols. Thomas Mann Time 57
A man lives not only his personal life as an individual but also, consciously or unconsciously, the life of his epoch and his contemporaries. Thomas Mann Living 56
For the myth is the foundation of life; it is the timeless schema, the pious formula into which life flows when it reproduces its traits out of the unconscious. Thomas Mann Flows 52
Culture and possessions, there is the bourgeoisie for you. Thomas Mann Bourgeoisie 51
Extraordinary creature! So close a friend, and yet so remote. Thomas Mann Dogs 51
Opinions cannot survive if one has no chance to fight for them. Thomas Mann Opinions 49
Opinions cannot survive if one has no chance to fight for them. Thomas Mann Opinion 48
Speech is civilization itself. Thomas Mann Uncategorized 48
A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people. Thomas Mann Authors 44
One has the idea of a stupid man as perfectly healthy and ordinary, and of illness as making one refined and clever and unusual. Thomas Mann Clever 44
Disease makes men more physical, it leaves them nothing but body. Thomas Mann Uncategorized 43
It is love, not reason, that is stronger than death. Thomas Mann Death 42
Der Sommer hat angefangen und schon neigt er sich dem Ende zu. Thomas Mann Literature 42
Laughter is a sunbeam of the soul. Thomas Mann Sun 42
The good Lord sees your heart, not the braid on your jacket; before him we are all in our birthday suits, generals and common men alike. Thomas Mann Equality 39

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