Thomas Mann Quotes

A collection of quotes by Thomas Mann.

Thomas Mann was a renowned German writer and Nobel laureate, notable for his profound literary contributions to both the novel and novella genres. He was born on June 6, 1875, in LÃ¼beck, Germany, into a wealthy and influential family. Mann's early works were influenced by his own experiences, and he often explored themes of morality, love, and the human condition.

One of his most celebrated works is the novel "Buddenbrooks" (1901), which portrays the decline of a prosperous merchant family. Mann's keen observational skills and meticulous attention to detail contributed to the novel's recognition as a masterwork of German literature. He continued to produce notable works, including "Death in Venice" (1912), a novella that explores themes of beauty, desire, and the pursuit of art.

Mann's literary career reached its pinnacle with his monumental novel "The Magic Mountain" (1924). This complex and layered work delves into existential and philosophical questions set against the backdrop of a sanatorium in the Swiss Alps. Mann's ability to dissect human nature and society made him a leading figure in European literature during the early 20th century.

Due to his critical stance toward the rise of Nazism, Mann left Germany in 1933. He spent the following years in exile, primarily in the United States, where he continued to write, producing works like "Doctor Faustus" (1947), a novel that explores the Faustian dilemma and the corruption of German society under Hitler's regime.

Thomas Mann's legacy as a writer extends far beyond his lifetime, influencing generations of authors and readers alike. He passed away on August 12, 1955, in Zurich, Switzerland, leaving behind a rich literary heritage that continues to captivate audiences worldwide.

Order and simplification are the first steps toward the mast

Order and simplification are the first steps toward the mastery of a subject.

For the sake of goodness and love, man shall let death have

For the sake of goodness and love, man shall let death have no sovereignty over his thoughts.

Solitude gives birth to the original in us, to beauty unfami

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.

As a science of the unconscious it is a therapeutic method,

As a science of the unconscious it is a therapeutic method, in the grand style, a method overarching the individual case. Call this, if you choose, a poet's utopia.

Science Style Method

Politics has been called the art of the possible, and it act

Politics has been called the art of the possible, and it actually is a realm akin to art insofar as, like art, it occupies a creatively mediating position between spirit and life, the idea and reality.

Life Politics Art

I, for one, have never in my life come across a perfectly he

I, for one, have never in my life come across a perfectly healthy human being.

It is love, not reason, that is stronger than death.

It is love, not reason, that is stronger than death.

I hold that we shall one day recognize in Freud's life-work

I hold that we shall one day recognize in Freud's life-work the cornerstone for the building of a new anthropology and therewith of a new structure, to which many stones are being brought up today, which shall be the future dwelling of a wiser and freer humanity.

Innate in nearly every artistic nature is a wanton, treacher

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.

Sympathy Art Beauty Wealth Creativity Capitalism Ignorance Subjectivity Bias Bourgeois Egalitarianism

A harmful truth is better than a useful lie.

A harmful truth is better than a useful lie.

What was life? It was warmth, the warmth generated by a form

What was life? It was warmth, the warmth generated by a form-preserving instability, a fever of matter, which accompanied the process of ceaseless decay and repair of protein molecules that were too impossibly ingenious in structure.

Beauty can pierce one like pain.

Beauty can pierce one like pain.

The only religious way to think of death is as a part and pa

The only religious way to think of death is as a part and parcel of life to regard it, with the understanding and the emotions, as the inviolable condition of life.

For I must tell you that we artists cannot tread the path of

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.

All interest in disease and death is only another expression

All interest in disease and death is only another expression of interest in life.

War is only a cowardly escape from the problems of peace.

War is only a cowardly escape from the problems of peace.

If you are possessed by an idea, you find it expressed every

If you are possessed by an idea, you find it expressed everywhere, you even smell it.

The meeting in the open of two dogs, strangers to each other

The meeting in the open of two dogs, strangers to each other, is one of the most painful, thrilling, and pregnant of all conceivable encounters; it is surrounded by an atmosphere of the last canniness, presided over by a constraint for which I have no precise name; they simply cannot pass each other, their mutual embarrassment is frightful to behold.

Order and simplification are the first steps towards the mas

Order and simplification are the first steps towards the mastery of a subject.

Opinions cannot survive if one has no chance to fight for th

Opinions cannot survive if one has no chance to fight for them.