Quotessence
Home / Authors / Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quotes

Novelist

Filter quotes by topic

AllThomas MannMenLoveBeautyArtSolitudeIfsDeathGerman LiteratureLife

Famous Thomas Mann Quotes

“Nothing is more curious and awkward than the relationship of two people who only know each other with their eyes — who meet and observe each other daily, even hourly and who keep up the impression of disinterest either because of morals or because of a mental abnormality. Between them there is listlessness and pent-up curiosity, the hysteria of an unsatisfied, unnaturally suppressed need for communion and also a kind of tense respect. Because man loves and honors man as long as he is not able to judge him, and desire is a product of lacking knowledge.”

PeopleKnowsMenNeedsKindLongTwoEyeAbleDesireMoralJudgingProductsHonorCuriosityImpressionCuriousAwkwardLackingCommunionTenseHysteriaUnsatisfiedAbnormalityDisinterestLove And Honor
Author:Thomas Mann
Create image

“If the years of youth are experienced slowly, while the later years of life hurtle past at an ever-increasing speed, it must be habit that causes it. We know full well that the insertion of new habits or the changing of old ones is the only way to preserve life, to renew our sense of time, to rejuvenate, intensify, and retard our experience of time - and thereby renew our sense of life itself. That is the reason for every change of scenery and air.”

IfsKnowsWayYearsWellsReasonPastCausesAirYouthHabitSpeedPreservesSceneryRetardYears Of LifeNew HabitsChange Of Scenery
Author:Thomas Mann
Create image

“And then the sly arch-lover that he was, he said the subtlest thing of all: that the lover was nearer the divine than the beloved; for the god was in the one but not in the other - perhaps the tenderest, most mocking thought that ever was thought, and source of all the guile and secret bliss the lover knows.”

KnowsSaidSecretDivineSourceLoversBelovedBlissArchesSlyGuile
Book:Death in Venice: And Seven Other Stories
Create image

“The observations and encounters of a devotee of solitude and silence are at once less distinct and more penetrating than those of the sociable man; his thoughts are weightier, stranger, and never without a tinge of sadness. Images and perceptions which might otherwise be easily dispelled by a glance, a laugh, an exchange of comments, concern him unduly, they sink into mute depths, take on significance, become experiences, adventures, emotions.”

MenMightEmotionSilenceLaughingSadnessAdventureSolitudePerceptionConcernDepthStrangerObservationEncountersSignificanceCommentGlancesMuteDevoteeSociable
Book:Death in Venice, Tonio Kroger, and Other Writings: Thomas Mann
Create image

“Even in a personal sense, after all, art is an intensified life. By art one is more deeply satisfied and more rapidly used up. It engraves on the countenance of its servant the traces of imaginary and intellectual adventures, and even if he has outwardly existed in cloistral tranquility, it leads in the long term to overfastidiousness, over-refinement, nervous fatigue and overstimulation, such as can seldom result from a life of the most extravagant passions and pleasures.”

IfsLongArtUsedPassionTermPleasureResultsAdventureIntellectualArt IsSatisfiedNervousServantLong TermImaginaryTranquilityFatigueRefinementCountenanceExtravagantLead InEngraveOverstimulation
Author:Thomas Mann
Create image

“There were profound reasons for his attachment to the sea: he loved it because as a hardworking artist he needed rest, needed to escape from the demanding complexity of phenomena and lie hidden on the bosom of the simple and tremendous; because of a forbidden longing deep within him that ran quite contrary to his life's task and was for that very reason seductive, a longing for the unarticulated and immeasurable, for eternity, for nothingness. To rest in the arms of perfection is the desire of any man intent upon creating excellence; and is not nothingness a form of perfection?”

MenReasonFormLyingDesireArtistSimpleSeaArmsNeededCreatingPerfectionTasksEternityLongingExcellenceProfoundContraryRanComplexityAttachmentNothingnessForbiddenBosomsSeductiveDeep WithinHardworking
Author:Thomas Mann
Create image

“To allow only the kind of art that the average man understands is the worst small-mindedness and the murder of mind and spirit. It is my conviction that the intellect can be certain that in doing what most disconcerts the crowd, in pursuing the most daring, unconventional advances and explorations, it will in some highly indirect fashion serve man - and in the long run, all men.”

MenMindKindLongArtRunningSpiritCertainWorstFashionMurderAverageCrowdsConvictionIntellectExplorationDaringLong RunsIndirectAverage ManUnconventional
Author:Thomas Mann
Create image

“The observations and encounters of a solitary, taciturn man are vaguer and at the same times more intense than those of a sociable man; his thoughts are deeper, odder and never without a touch of sadness. Images and perceptions that could be dismissed with a glance, a laugh, an exchange of opinions, occupy him unduly, become more intense in the silence, become significant, become an experience, an adventure, an emotion. Solitude produces originality, bold and astonishing beauty, poetry. But solitude also produces perverseness, the disproportionate, the absurd and the forbidden.”

MenEmotionSilenceOpinionLaughingSadnessProduceAdventureSolitudePerceptionDeeperSignificantIntenseAbsurdObservationEncountersOriginalitySolitaryGlancesForbiddenAstonishingSociablePerversenessTaciturnBeauty Poetry
Book:Death in Venice & A Man and His Dog: A Dual-Language Book
Create image

“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.”

LoveAgeFormPassionLanguagePerfectLove IsResultsHighestLustClaritySubtleAffirmationAssociatesOne WordAmbiguitySanctityLove PassionOrganic Life
Book:The magic mountain: a novel
Create image

“A lonely, quiet person has observations and experiences that are at once both more indistinct and more penetrating than those of one more gregarious; his thoughts are weightier, stranger, and never without a tinge of sadness. . . . Loneliness fosters that which is original, daringly and bewilderingly beautiful, poetic. But loneliness also fosters that which is perverse, incongruous, absurd, forbidden.”

PersonsBeautifulSadnessLonelinessQuietLonelyOriginalsStrangerAbsurdObservationPoeticForbiddenGregariousQuiet Person
Author:Thomas Mann
Create image