01UndatedDiscussions should always be held just before going to bed, your rear protected by sleep. How painful, after an intellectual conversation, to have to go about with your mind so stirred up.Thomas Mann / quote ↗
02UndatedFor a brief moment I felt I was the older, the more mature."A gift of life," I responded, "if not to say, a gift of God, such as music, should not have the mocking charge of paradox leveled at it for things that are merely evidence of the fullness of its nature. One should love them.""Do you believe love is the strongest emotion?" he asked."Do you know any stronger?""Yes, interest.""By which you probably mean a love that has been deprived of its animal warmth, is that it?""Let's agree on that definition!" he said with a laugh. "Good night!"We had arrived again at the Leverkühn house, and he opened his front door.Thomas Mann / quote ↗
04UndatedOrder and simplification are the first steps towards mastery of a subjectThomas Mann / quote ↗
07UndatedKindly permit me to tell you, sir, that I hate you. I hate you and your child, as I hate the life of which you are the representative: cheap, ridiculous, but yet triumphant life, the everlasting antipodes and deadly enemy of beauty. I cannot say I despise you - for I am honest. You are stronger than I. I have no armour for the struggle between us, I have only the Word, avenging weapon of the weak. Today I have availed myself of this weapon. This letter is nothing but an act of revenge - you see how honourable I am - and if any word of mine is sharp and bright and beautiful enough to strike home, to make you feel the presence of a power you do not know, to shake even a minute your robust equilibrium, I shall rejoice indeed. -Thomas Mann / quote ↗
08UndatedFor the sake of goodness and love, man shall grant death no dominion over his thoughts.Thomas Mann / quote ↗
09UndatedI bear within me the seed, the rudiments, the possibility of life's capacities and endeavors. Where might I be, if I were not here? Who, what, how could I be, if I were not me, if this outward appearance that is me did not encase me, separating my consciousness from that of others who are not me? An organism—a blind, rash, pitiful eruption of the insistent assertion of the will. Far better, really, if that will were to drift free in a night without time or space, than to languish in a prison cell lit only by the flickering, uncertain flame of the intellect.Thomas Mann / quote ↗
10UndatedPerfectionism, of course, was something which even as a young man he had come to see as the innermost essence of talent.Thomas Mann / quote ↗
11UndatedThere are so many different kinds of stupidity, and cleverness is one of the worst.Thomas Mann / quote ↗
12UndatedThe accouterments of life were so rich and varied, so elaborated, that almost no place at all was left for life itself. Each and every accessory was so costly and beautiful that it had an existence above and beyond the purpose it was meant to serve – confusing the observer and absorbing attention.Thomas Mann / quote ↗
13UndatedThey walked, and the long waves rolled and murmured rhythmically beside them; the fresh salty wind blew free and unobstructed in their faces, wrapped itself around their ears, and made them feel slightly numb and deliciously dizzy. They walked along in that wide, peaceful, whispering hush of the sea that gives every sound, near or far, some mysterious importance.Thomas Mann / quote ↗
14UndatedWhat they, in their innocence, cannot comprehend is that a properly constituted, healthy, decent man never writes, acts, or composes.Thomas Mann / quote ↗
15UndatedI tell them that if they will occupy themselves with the study of mathematics they will find in it the best remedy against the lusts of the flesh.Thomas Mann / quote ↗
17UndatedOne could say that someone who does nothing but wait is like a glutton whose digestive system processes great masses of food without extracting any useful nourishment. One could go further and say that just as undigested food does not strengthen a man, time spent in waiting does not age him.Thomas Mann / quote ↗
18UndatedBut the boredom of Frau Spatz had by now reached that pitch where it distorts the countenance of man, makes the eyes protrude from the head, and lends the features a corpselike and terrifying aspect. More than that, this music acted on the nerves that controlled her digestion, producing in her dyspeptic organism such malaise that she was really afraid she would have an attack.Thomas Mann / quote ↗
19UndatedBut even those five-and-forty minutes were too long, the bored me --and boredom is the coldest thing in the world.Thomas Mann / quote ↗
20Undated[Men] act in response to an outward situation, and on being presented with an opportunity to conform to a pattern. If the pattern gives licence to cruelty, so much the better. They take advantage of the licence so thoughtlessly, so thoroughly, that it becomes perfectly clear: the generality of mankind are only waiting for the chance, only waiting for outward circumstance to sanction brutality and allow them to be cruel and brutal to their heart's content.Thomas Mann / quote ↗
23UndatedTime cools time clarifies no mood can be maintained quite unaltered through the course of hours.Thomas Mann / quote ↗
24UndatedHabituation is a falling asleep or fatiguing of the sense of time which explains why young years pass slowly while later life flings itself faster and faster upon its course.Thomas Mann / quote ↗
