The task of a writer consists of being able to make something out of an idea.
Thomas MannRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Freedom and equality can often conflict in democratic societies.
In this quote, Thomas Mann highlights the inherent tension between freedom and equality within a democratic system. He suggests that while both concepts are foundational to democracy, they can be contradictory because granting absolute freedom to individuals may undermine collective equality, just as the needs of society can overshadow individual rights.
Themes
FreedomEqualityDemocracySocietyIndividual
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate on civil rights, this quote can illustrate the struggle between personal freedoms and the pursuit of equality.
More from Thomas Mann
All quotes →Stupid — well, there are so many kinds of stupidity, and cleverness is one of the worst.
Thomas MannRead
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.
Thomas MannRead
Literature... is the union of suffering with the instinct for form.
Thomas MannRead
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.
Thomas MannRead
One always has the idea of a stupid man as perfectly healthy and ordinary, and of illness as making one refined and clever and unusual.
Thomas MannRead
Similar quotes
Today, the degradation of the inner life is symbolized by the fact that the only place sacred from interruption is the private toilet.
Lewis MumfordRead
The mind of man is a thousand times more beautiful than the earth on which he dwells.
William WordsworthRead
We create our fate every day . . . most of the ills we suffer from are directly traceable to our own behavior.
Henry MillerRead
If a man had begun to hate an object of his love, so that love is thoroughly destroyed, he will, causes being equal, regard it with more hatred than if he had never loved it, and his hatred will be in proportion to the strength of his former love.
Baruch SpinozaRead
My father was a man who didn't consider himself learned. He was a man who liked to be a farmer. He enjoyed his dairy farm and felt the calling. So there was a dedication. I was dedicated as a child to the service of God, and so there was this continual centering of a greater purpose than your own.
Phil JacksonRead
And none will hear the postman’s knock Without a quickening of the heart. For who can bear to feel himself forgotten?
W. H. AudenRead