Laughter is a sunbeam of the soul.

- Thomas Mann

A harmful truth is better than a useful lie.

- Thomas Mann

Order and simplification are the first steps toward the mastery of a subject.

- Thomas Mann

People's behavior makes sense if you think about it in terms of their goals, needs, and motives.

- Thomas Mann

Stupid — well, there are so many kinds of stupidity, and cleverness is one of the worst.

- Thomas Mann

But my deepest and most secret love belongs to the fair-haired and the blue-eyed, the bright children of life, the happy, the charming and the ordina…

- Thomas Mann

Art is the funnel, as it were, through which spirit is poured into life.

- Thomas Mann

War is only a cowardly escape from the problems of peace.

- Thomas Mann

In books we never find anything but ourselves. Strangely enough, that always gives us great pleasure, and we say the author is a genius.

- Thomas Mann