It is as though something had begun to slip – as though I haven't the firm grip I had on events. – What is success? It is an inner, an indescribable … - Thomas Mann

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It is as though something had begun to slip – as though I haven't the firm grip I had on events. – What is success? It is an inner, an indescribable force, resourcefulness, power of vision; a consciousness that I am, by my mere existence, exerting pressure on the movement of life about me. It is my belief in the adaptability of life to my own ends. Fortune and success lie within ourselves. We must hold them firmly – deep within us. For as soon as something begins to slip, to relax, to get tired, within us, then everything without us will rebel and struggle to withdraw from our influence. One thing follows another, blow after blow – and the man is finished.

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About Thomas Mann

Paul Thomas Mann (6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate, known for his series of highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and mid-length stories, noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual.

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Also Known As

Alternative Names: Paul Thomas Mann
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And for its part, what was life? Was it perhaps only an infectious disease of matter — just as the so-called spontaneous generation of matter was perhaps only an illness, a cancerous stimulation of the immaterial?

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