The task of a writer consists of being able to make something out of an idea.
Thomas MannRead
Disease makes men more physical, it leaves them nothing but body.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that illness reduces a person's existence to mere physicality, stripping away the essence of their humanity.
Thomas Mann's quote reflects on how disease can diminish the spiritual and intellectual aspects of a person, focusing only on the physical form. When grappling with illness, individuals may find their thoughts and emotions overshadowed by their bodily struggles, revealing a stark confrontation with the limitations of the physical body and the vulnerability of human existence.
In practice
In a speech addressing the importance of mental health alongside physical health.
The task of a writer consists of being able to make something out of an idea.
Stupid β well, there are so many kinds of stupidity, and cleverness is one of the worst.
It is a strange fact that freedom and equality, the two basic ideas of democracy, are to some extent contradictory. Logically considered, freedom and equality are mutually exclusive, just as society and the individual are mutually exclusive.
I tell them that if they will occupy themselves with the study of mathematics they will find in it the best remedy against the lusts of the flesh.
Literature... is the union of suffering with the instinct for form.
The Freudian theory is one of the most important foundation stones for an edifice to be built by future generations, the dwelling of a freer and wiser humanity.
The length of a man's outspread arms is equal to his height.
Some tourists think Amsterdam is a city of sin, but in truth it is a city of freedom. And in freedom, most people find sin.
Have you noticed that life, with murders and catastrophes and fabulous inheritances, happens almost exclusively in newspapers?
Whereas there can be but one Baptism, they think they can Baptize; they have abandoned the fountain of life, yet promise the life and grace of the waters of salvation. It is not cleansing which men find there, but soiling; their sins are not washed away, but only added to. That being "born again" does not bring forth sons to God but to the Devil. Born of a lie, they cannot inherit the things which Truth has promised; begotten by the faithless, they are deprived of the grace of faith.
It is of no use for any of you to try to be soul-winners if you are not bearing fruit in your own lives. How can you serve the Lord with your lips if you do not serve Him with your lives.? How can you preach His gospel with your tongues, when with hands, feet, and heart you are preaching the devilβs gospel, and setting up an antichrist by your practical unholiness?
War's a profanity because, let's face it, you've got two opposing sides trying to settle their differences by killing as many of each other as they can.
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