The important thing for me, then, is not the "work," but my life. Life is not the means for the achievement of an esthetic ideal of perfection; on th… - Thomas Mann

I believe that the revolutionary opportunism and the glow of false dawn in these tendencies — it is obvious that I mean the fascist tendencies — are tainted magic. Not only in this respect, but particularly in this respect, fascism is so thoroughly false that honorable youth throughout the world should be ashamed to have anything to do with it.

His yearning for new and faraway places, his desire for freedom, relief and oblivion was as he admitted to himself, an urge to flee-an urge to get away from his work, from the everyday site of a cold, rigid, and passionate servitude.

The writer's joy is the thought that can become emotion, the emotion that can wholly become a thought.