The books and magazines streamed in. He could buy them all, they piled up around him and even while he read, the number of those still to be read disturbed him. … they stood in rows, weighing down his life like a possession which he did not succeed in subordinating to his personality. - Thomas Mann
Opinions cannot survive if one has no chance to fight for them. - Thomas Mann
A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people. - Thomas Mann
All interest in disease and death is only another expression of interest in life. - Thomas Mann
No man remains quite what he was when he recognizes himself. - Thomas Mann
Deep is the well of the past. Should we not call it bottomless? - Thomas Mann
Order and simplification are the first steps towards mastery of a subject - Thomas Mann
Democracy is eternal and human. It dignifies the human being; it respects humanity. - Thomas Mann
Der Sommer hat angefangen und schon neigt er sich dem Ende zu. - Thomas Mann
A writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people. - Thomas Mann
For one human being instinctively feels respect and love for another human being so long as he does not know him well enough to judge him; and that he does not, the craving he feels is evidence. - Thomas Mann
War is a cowardly escape from the problems of peace. - Thomas Mann
Speech is civilization itself... It is silence which isolates. - Thomas Mann
Prayers and love are learned in the hour when prayer has become impossible and your heart has turned to stone. - Thomas Mann
A man's dying is more the survivors' affair than his own. - Thomas Mann
We are not free, separate, and independent entities, but like links in a chain, and we could not by any means be what we are without those who went before us and showed us the way. - Thomas Mann
La barbarie n est le contraire de la culture que dans le cadre de la hierarchie de pensee que celle-ci nous propose. - Thomas Mann
La corrupción es como un pantano sin fondo: de ella se puede esperar todo. - Thomas Mann
For passion, like crime does not sit well with the sure order and even course of everyday life. It welcomes every loosening of the social fabric, every confusion and affliction visited upon the world, for passion sees in such a disorder a vague hope of finding advantage for itself. - Thomas Mann
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
The sweet spot is where duty and delight converge. - Thomas Mann
Discussions 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
Yes, they are carnal, both of them, love and death, and therein lies their terror and their great magic! - Thomas Mann