Create Yours Create Yours

Top 250 Thomas Mann Quotes (2026 Update)
Page 5 of 6

Thomas Mann Quote: “Wrapped in his coat, a book in his lap, the traveler took his ease, the hours slipping by unnoticed.”

201. “Wrapped in his coat, a book in his lap, the traveler took his ease, the hours slipping by unnoticed.”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “But the beginning and the end, birth and death, we do not experience; they have no subjective character, they fall entirely n the category of objective events, and that’s that.”

202. “But the beginning and the end, birth and death, we do not experience; they have no subjective character, they fall entirely n the category of objective events, and that’s that.”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “Sun and sea air could not burn his skin, it was the same creamy marble hue as at first – though he did look a little pale, either from the cold or in the bluish moonlight of the arc-lamps. The shapely brows were so delicately drawn, the eyes so deeply dark – lovelier he was than words could say, and as often the thought visited Aschenbach, and brought its own pang, that language could but extol, not reproduce, the beauties of the sense.”

203. “Sun and sea air could not burn his skin, it was the same creamy marble hue as at first – though he did look a little pale, either from the cold or in the bluish moonlight of the arc-lamps. The shapely brows were so delicately drawn, the eyes so deeply dark – lovelier he was than words could say, and as often the thought visited Aschenbach, and brought its own pang, that language could but extol, not reproduce, the beauties of the sense.”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “Thou art so shrewd, and so false,” he said wearily, “and I can make no head against thee, nor should anyone try since thou wilt but set him in the wrong. But when I look around me, I am as in a dream. All that I see is mine, daughters, children, flocks and waggons and beasts and men, they are mine, but have passed over into thy hands I know not how, and thou takest away all before mine eyes, till I am as in a dream.”

204. “Thou art so shrewd, and so false,” he said wearily, “and I can make no head against thee, nor should anyone try since thou wilt but set him in the wrong. But when I look around me, I am as in a dream. All that I see is mine, daughters, children, flocks and waggons and beasts and men, they are mine, but have passed over into thy hands I know not how, and thou takest away all before mine eyes, till I am as in a dream.”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “Yes, it’s almost too beautiful, Tony. By which I mean that it’s all too new yet. It still bothers me a little somehow, and that may be why this bad mood comes over me, nags at me, and ruins everything. I was so looking forward to all this, but, as always, anticipation was the best part, because good things always come too late, and then, when it’s finished and ready, you can’t really enjoy it the way you should.”

205. “Yes, it’s almost too beautiful, Tony. By which I mean that it’s all too new yet. It still bothers me a little somehow, and that may be why this bad mood comes over me, nags at me, and ruins everything. I was so looking forward to all this, but, as always, anticipation was the best part, because good things always come too late, and then, when it’s finished and ready, you can’t really enjoy it the way you should.”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “On a personal level, too, art is life intensified: it delights more deeply, consumes more rapidly; it engraves the traces of imaginary and intellectual adventure on the countenance of its servant and in the long run, for all the monastic calm of his external existence, leads to self-indulgence, overrefinement, lethargy, and a restless curiosity that a lifetime of wild passions and pleasures could scarcely engender.”

206. “On a personal level, too, art is life intensified: it delights more deeply, consumes more rapidly; it engraves the traces of imaginary and intellectual adventure on the countenance of its servant and in the long run, for all the monastic calm of his external existence, leads to self-indulgence, overrefinement, lethargy, and a restless curiosity that a lifetime of wild passions and pleasures could scarcely engender.”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “For he was by nature and temperament passive, could sit without occupation hours on end, and loved, as we know, to see time spacious before him, and not to have the sense of its passing banished, wiped out or eaten up by prosaic activity.”

207. “For he was by nature and temperament passive, could sit without occupation hours on end, and loved, as we know, to see time spacious before him, and not to have the sense of its passing banished, wiped out or eaten up by prosaic activity.”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “The tragedy of Rachel is the tragedy of valour rejected.”

208. “The tragedy of Rachel is the tragedy of valour rejected.”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “Space, like time, engenders forgetfulness; but it does so by setting us bodily free from our surroundings and giving us back our primitive, unattached state.”

209. “Space, like time, engenders forgetfulness; but it does so by setting us bodily free from our surroundings and giving us back our primitive, unattached state.”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “God is spirit, and above languages is language.”

210. “God is spirit, and above languages is language.”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “It always happens that, directly it has been found wanting and discarded by the poets and philosophers, there comes along a King to whom it is a perfectly new idea, and who makes it a guiding principle. That is what kings are like. It is not only that kings are men – they are even very distinctly average men; they are always a good way in the rear.”

211. “It always happens that, directly it has been found wanting and discarded by the poets and philosophers, there comes along a King to whom it is a perfectly new idea, and who makes it a guiding principle. That is what kings are like. It is not only that kings are men – they are even very distinctly average men; they are always a good way in the rear.”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “Vacuity, monotony, have, indeed, the property of lingering out the moment and the hour and of making them tiresome.”

212. “Vacuity, monotony, have, indeed, the property of lingering out the moment and the hour and of making them tiresome.”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “It seems to me, however, that despite the logical, moral rigor music may appear to display, it belongs to a world of spirits, for whose absolute reliability in matters of human reason and dignity I would not exactly want to put my hand in the fire. That I am nevertheless devoted to it with all my heart is one of those contradictions which, whether a cause for joy or regret, are inseparable from human nature.”

213. “It seems to me, however, that despite the logical, moral rigor music may appear to display, it belongs to a world of spirits, for whose absolute reliability in matters of human reason and dignity I would not exactly want to put my hand in the fire. That I am nevertheless devoted to it with all my heart is one of those contradictions which, whether a cause for joy or regret, are inseparable from human nature.”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “El arte es vida potenciada.”

214. “El arte es vida potenciada.”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “God help our darkened and desecrated country and teach it to make its peace with the world and with itself!”

215. “God help our darkened and desecrated country and teach it to make its peace with the world and with itself!”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “Thus ungrateful is immature youth! It takes all that is offered, and bites the hand that feeds it.”

216. “Thus ungrateful is immature youth! It takes all that is offered, and bites the hand that feeds it.”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “How good, he thinks, that she breathes in oblivion with every breath she draws! That in childhood each night is a deep wide gulf between one day and the next.”

217. “How good, he thinks, that she breathes in oblivion with every breath she draws! That in childhood each night is a deep wide gulf between one day and the next.”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “The servants’ bare soles were inaudible on the matted floors, and the speech of Petepre and his kin was infrequent and soft-voiced from mutual respect. They bent tactfully toward each other, and in the pauses between courses held to each other’s noses a lotus flower, or some dainty morsel to each other’s mouths. Their mutual gentleness was exquisite, it was almost painful.”

218. “The servants’ bare soles were inaudible on the matted floors, and the speech of Petepre and his kin was infrequent and soft-voiced from mutual respect. They bent tactfully toward each other, and in the pauses between courses held to each other’s noses a lotus flower, or some dainty morsel to each other’s mouths. Their mutual gentleness was exquisite, it was almost painful.”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “When the moral courage to make decisions and distinctions between reality and deception degenerates to that point, then there is an end of life, of judgement, of the creative deed: the process of decay sets in, moral scepsis, and does its deadly work.”

219. “When the moral courage to make decisions and distinctions between reality and deception degenerates to that point, then there is an end of life, of judgement, of the creative deed: the process of decay sets in, moral scepsis, and does its deadly work.”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “And this whole sunny region – these easily scaled coastal heights, these laughing rock-bound pools, and the sea itself, as far as the islands where boats sailed past now and then – was populated in all directions: people, children of the sea and sun, were stirring and resting everywhere, intelligent, cheerful, beautiful, young humanity, so fair to gaze upon. And at the sight, Hans Castorp’s whole heart opened wide – painfully, lovingly wide.”

220. “And this whole sunny region – these easily scaled coastal heights, these laughing rock-bound pools, and the sea itself, as far as the islands where boats sailed past now and then – was populated in all directions: people, children of the sea and sun, were stirring and resting everywhere, intelligent, cheerful, beautiful, young humanity, so fair to gaze upon. And at the sight, Hans Castorp’s whole heart opened wide – painfully, lovingly wide.”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “And with that she dipped her fourth slice of raisin bread in her coffee.”

221. “And with that she dipped her fourth slice of raisin bread in her coffee.”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “Nothing is more painful than to be prevented by our physical, our animal nature from being of service to reason.”

222. “Nothing is more painful than to be prevented by our physical, our animal nature from being of service to reason.”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “For he was by nature and temperament passive, could sit without occupation hours on end, and loved, as we know, to see time spacious before him.”

223. “For he was by nature and temperament passive, could sit without occupation hours on end, and loved, as we know, to see time spacious before him.”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “Piety is the privatization of the world as the story of one’s self and one’s salvation, and without the, yes, sometimes offensive conviction that one is the object of God’s special, and indeed exclusive care, without the rearrangement that places oneself and one’s salvation at the center of all things, there is no piety – that is, in fact, what defines this very powerful virtue.”

224. “Piety is the privatization of the world as the story of one’s self and one’s salvation, and without the, yes, sometimes offensive conviction that one is the object of God’s special, and indeed exclusive care, without the rearrangement that places oneself and one’s salvation at the center of all things, there is no piety – that is, in fact, what defines this very powerful virtue.”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “I hope that you have nothing against malice, my good engineer. In my eyes it is the brightest sword that reason has against the powers of darkness and ugliness.”

225. “I hope that you have nothing against malice, my good engineer. In my eyes it is the brightest sword that reason has against the powers of darkness and ugliness.”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “Children of sin are we all. But to me it often seems as though a contradiction were in the world between sinfulness and high courage, between the wretchedness of the flesh and its pride. If it be corrupt, how then can it gaze free and bold and brace itself to such a noble gait that it fills with pride even the beholder? The spirit is ware of our unworth, yet unconcerned with its knowledge Nature considers herself worthy.”

226. “Children of sin are we all. But to me it often seems as though a contradiction were in the world between sinfulness and high courage, between the wretchedness of the flesh and its pride. If it be corrupt, how then can it gaze free and bold and brace itself to such a noble gait that it fills with pride even the beholder? The spirit is ware of our unworth, yet unconcerned with its knowledge Nature considers herself worthy.”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “I know from life and from history something you have not thought of: often the outward, visible, material signs and symbols of happiness and success only show themselves when the process of decline has already set in. The outer manifestations take time – like the light of that start up there which may in reality already be quenched when it looks to us to be shining at its brightest.”

227. “I know from life and from history something you have not thought of: often the outward, visible, material signs and symbols of happiness and success only show themselves when the process of decline has already set in. The outer manifestations take time – like the light of that start up there which may in reality already be quenched when it looks to us to be shining at its brightest.”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “He was more beautiful than words can say, and Aschenbach felt painfully, as he had often done, that words are able to praise physical beauty but not to reproduce it.”

228. “He was more beautiful than words can say, and Aschenbach felt painfully, as he had often done, that words are able to praise physical beauty but not to reproduce it.”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “Let no one tell me nothing is being communicated here! For the message to be inaccessible, and for one to immerse oneself in that contradiction – that also has its pleasure.”

229. “Let no one tell me nothing is being communicated here! For the message to be inaccessible, and for one to immerse oneself in that contradiction – that also has its pleasure.”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “That regales,” he said. “Won’t you have more?”

230. “That regales,” he said. “Won’t you have more?”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “The capacity for self-surrender, he said, for becoming a tool, for the most unconditional and utter self-abnegation, was but the reverse side of that other power to will and to command. Commanding and obeying formed together one single principle, one indissoluble unity; he who knew how to obey knew also how to command, and conversely; the one idea was comprehended in the other, as people and leader were comprehended in one another.”

231. “The capacity for self-surrender, he said, for becoming a tool, for the most unconditional and utter self-abnegation, was but the reverse side of that other power to will and to command. Commanding and obeying formed together one single principle, one indissoluble unity; he who knew how to obey knew also how to command, and conversely; the one idea was comprehended in the other, as people and leader were comprehended in one another.”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “If only the soil can maintain life, then only the possession of it can confer freedom. Manual labourers and peasants, however honourable their position, if they possess no real property, can only be the property of those who do.”

232. “If only the soil can maintain life, then only the possession of it can confer freedom. Manual labourers and peasants, however honourable their position, if they possess no real property, can only be the property of those who do.”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “Once, when he lowered the book on his lap and blinked up at the blue, sunny sky, he said to himself: Now, that’s thirty years. Another ten or even twenty may still come, God knows. They will come along quiet and soundless and flow by like the ones that have already passed, and I look forward to them with peace in my heart.”

233. “Once, when he lowered the book on his lap and blinked up at the blue, sunny sky, he said to himself: Now, that’s thirty years. Another ten or even twenty may still come, God knows. They will come along quiet and soundless and flow by like the ones that have already passed, and I look forward to them with peace in my heart.”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “That music is ambiguity as a system. Take this note or this one. You can understand it like this or, again, like this, can perceive it as augmented from below or as diminished from above, and, being the sly fellow you are, you can make use of its duplicity just as you like.”

234. “That music is ambiguity as a system. Take this note or this one. You can understand it like this or, again, like this, can perceive it as augmented from below or as diminished from above, and, being the sly fellow you are, you can make use of its duplicity just as you like.”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “It all comes to this: if you take care not to be a man of action, if you seek peace in solitude, you will find that life’s vicissitudes fall upon you from within and it is upon that stage you must prove yourself a hero or a fool.”

235. “It all comes to this: if you take care not to be a man of action, if you seek peace in solitude, you will find that life’s vicissitudes fall upon you from within and it is upon that stage you must prove yourself a hero or a fool.”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “Cling to everything which to you is by nature and tradition holy as a son of the god like west.”

236. “Cling to everything which to you is by nature and tradition holy as a son of the god like west.”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “If I gave in to my nature, I’d lie in bed until afternoon, you can believe me. It’s actually hypocrisy for me to get up so early.”

237. “If I gave in to my nature, I’d lie in bed until afternoon, you can believe me. It’s actually hypocrisy for me to get up so early.”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “In all of us is the wish to return to the has-been and repeat it, that if it were once unblest it may now be blessed.”

238. “In all of us is the wish to return to the has-been and repeat it, that if it were once unblest it may now be blessed.”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “No, when it came to the ultimate and highest questions, there was no help from outside – no mediation, no absolution, no soothing consolation. Every man had to untangle the riddle on his own, had to work diligently at it, at hot speed, all by himself; before it was too late, he must either achieve some clear readiness for death, or die in despair.”

239. “No, when it came to the ultimate and highest questions, there was no help from outside – no mediation, no absolution, no soothing consolation. Every man had to untangle the riddle on his own, had to work diligently at it, at hot speed, all by himself; before it was too late, he must either achieve some clear readiness for death, or die in despair.”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “God does all, yet has given us a conscience, and we become guilty before Him because we are guilty for Him. Man bears God’s guilt; and it would be no more than right if one day God were to make up His mind to bear our guilt. How He, the holy and blameless, could do that is hard to say. I should think He would need to become a man to that end.”

240. “God does all, yet has given us a conscience, and we become guilty before Him because we are guilty for Him. Man bears God’s guilt; and it would be no more than right if one day God were to make up His mind to bear our guilt. How He, the holy and blameless, could do that is hard to say. I should think He would need to become a man to that end.”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “It would lead him back, restore him to himself, but there is nothing so distasteful as being restored to oneself when one is beside oneself.”

241. “It would lead him back, restore him to himself, but there is nothing so distasteful as being restored to oneself when one is beside oneself.”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “Habituation 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. We.”

242. “Habituation 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. We.”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “Very well can love come out of evil, and out of disorder something ordered for the best.”

243. “Very well can love come out of evil, and out of disorder something ordered for the best.”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “A hell hound is coming. Howling. A huge explosive shell. A disgusting sugarloaf from the infernal regions.”

244. “A hell hound is coming. Howling. A huge explosive shell. A disgusting sugarloaf from the infernal regions.”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “Art’s vital need for revolutionary progress and achievement of the new depends on the vehicle of the strongest subjective sense for what is hackneyed, for what has nothing more to say, for those standard, normal means that have now become ‘impossible’.”

245. “Art’s vital need for revolutionary progress and achievement of the new depends on the vehicle of the strongest subjective sense for what is hackneyed, for what has nothing more to say, for those standard, normal means that have now become ‘impossible’.”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “What is success? A mysterious, indescribable power – a vigilance, a readiness, the awareness that simply by my presence I can exert pressure on the movements of life around me, the belief that life can be molded to my advantage.”

246. “What is success? A mysterious, indescribable power – a vigilance, a readiness, the awareness that simply by my presence I can exert pressure on the movements of life around me, the belief that life can be molded to my advantage.”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “Now and then some one came up to little Johann, put an arm across his shoulders, and looked at his presents with the overdone, cynical admiration which people manufacture for the treasures of children.”

247. “Now and then some one came up to little Johann, put an arm across his shoulders, and looked at his presents with the overdone, cynical admiration which people manufacture for the treasures of children.”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “I know that the external, visible, tangible tokens and symbols of happiness and success first appear only after things have in reality gone into decline already. Such external signs need time to reach us, like the light of one of those stars up there, which when it shines most brightly may well have already gone out, for all we know.”

248. “I know that the external, visible, tangible tokens and symbols of happiness and success first appear only after things have in reality gone into decline already. Such external signs need time to reach us, like the light of one of those stars up there, which when it shines most brightly may well have already gone out, for all we know.”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “Laban, the clod, was very likely right when he said, in his sluggishness over the beer, that blessing was strength and life strength and nothing else. For it is vain superstition to think that the life of men of blessing is nothing but happiness and shallow well-being. For the blessing is in truth nothing but the basis of their existence, gleaming goldenly through a plenitude of affliction and trial.”

249. “Laban, the clod, was very likely right when he said, in his sluggishness over the beer, that blessing was strength and life strength and nothing else. For it is vain superstition to think that the life of men of blessing is nothing but happiness and shallow well-being. For the blessing is in truth nothing but the basis of their existence, gleaming goldenly through a plenitude of affliction and trial.”

— Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann Quote: “But the disease makes him ailing within and fevered without; disease makes men more physical, it leaves them nothing but body.”

250. “But the disease makes him ailing within and fevered without; disease makes men more physical, it leaves them nothing but body.”

— Thomas Mann

Quotes About Writing

Quotes About Writing

Firsts Quotes

Simplicity Quotes

Simplicity Quotes

Romance Quotes

Motivational Quotes

Motivational Quotes

PREV 1 2 3 4 5 6 NEXT

Quotes About Writing

Quotes About Writing

BOOKS WRITING READING

Firsts Quotes

Simplicity Quotes

Simplicity Quotes

SIMPLICITY

Romance Quotes

Motivational Quotes

Motivational Quotes

INSPIRATIONAL SUCCESS MOTIVATIONAL

Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes

Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes

ENTREPRENEURSHIP BUSINESS INSPIRATIONAL

Positive Quotes

Positive Quotes

POSITIVITY

Albert Einstein Quotes

Albert Einstein Quotes

SCIENCE LIFE

Startup Quotes

ENTREPRENEURSHIP BUSINESS INSPIRATIONAL

Steve Jobs Quotes

Steve Jobs Quotes

ENTREPRENEURSHIP BUSINESS APPLE

Inspirational Quotes

Inspirational Quotes

INSPIRATIONAL

Success Quotes

SUCCESS

QUOTE TEXT

— ,

Close

Save image...
Permalink
Open in new tab
Copy quote text

Beautiful Wallpapers and Images

We hope you enjoyed our collection of 250 Thomas Mann Quotes.

All the images on this page were created with QuoteFancy Studio.

Use QuoteFancy Studio to create high-quality images for your desktop backgrounds, blog posts, presentations, social media, videos, posters, and more.

Thank you!

Please check your email.

Learn more

Browse by:

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

hello@quotefancy.com

Terms of use Privacy policy Quote Maker Contact us

© 2026 Quotefancy. All rights reserved.