WIST Quotations

Mann, Thomas -- Buddenbrooks, 8.2 (1902) [tr. Lowe-Porter (1924)]

Dave — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 14:18:40 +0000

We are most likely to get angry and excited in our opposition to some idea when we ourselves are not quite certain of our own position, and are inwardly tempted to take the other side.

Thomas Mann (1875-1955) German writer, critic, philanthropist, Nobel laureate [Paul Thomas Mann]
Buddenbrooks, 8.2 (1902) [tr. Lowe-Porter (1924)]

Mann, Thomas -- The Magic Mountain [Der Zauberberg], Part 6, “A Good Soldier” (1924) [tr. Woods]

Dave — Wed, 09 Dec 2020 21:30:23 +0000

Language is civilization itself. The Word, even the most contradictory word, binds us together. Wordlessness isolates.

Thomas Mann (1875-1955) German writer, critic, philanthropist, Nobel laureate [Paul Thomas Mann]
The Magic Mountain [Der Zauberberg], Part 6, “A Good Soldier” (1924) [tr. Woods]
(Source)

Alt. trans.: "Speech is civilization itself. The word, even the most contradictory word, preserves contact -- it is silence which isolates." [tr. Lowe-Porter]

Mann, Thomas -- The Magic Mountain (1924)

Dave — Thu, 19 Feb 2015 14:50:24 +0000

A man’s dying is more the survivors’ affair than his own.

Thomas Mann (1875-1955) German writer, critic, philanthropist, Nobel laureate [Paul Thomas Mann]
The Magic Mountain (1924)

Mann, Thomas -- Tonio Kröger (1903)

Dave — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 14:31:08 +0000

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

Thomas Mann (1875-1955) German writer, critic, philanthropist, Nobel laureate [Paul Thomas Mann]
Tonio Kröger (1903)

Alt. trans. [B. Morgan]: "It is strange. If an idea gains control of you, you will find it expressed everywhere, you will actually smell it in the wind."

Mann, Thomas -- Introduction (1947) to Hermann Hesse, Demian: The Story of Emile Sinclair’s Youth (1919) [tr. Roloff and Lebeck (1965)]

Dave — Thu, 10 Oct 2013 12:24:29 +0000

Toward the end of the book (the time is 1914) Demian says to his friend Sinclair: “… The new is beginning and for those who cling to the old the new will be horrible. What will you do?” The right answer would be: “Assist the new without sacrificing the old.”

Thomas Mann (1875-1955) German writer, critic, philanthropist, Nobel laureate [Paul Thomas Mann]
Introduction (1947) to Hermann Hesse, Demian: The Story of Emile Sinclair’s Youth (1919) [tr. Roloff and Lebeck (1965)]