The task of a writer consists of being able to make something out of an idea.
Thomas MannRead
What good would politics be, if it didn’t give everyone the opportunity to make moral compromises.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Politics involves moral compromises that affect everyone.
Thomas Mann's quote reflects on the inherent nature of politics, suggesting that it provides a platform for individuals to navigate and negotiate moral compromises. This raises questions about the ethical dimensions of political action and how such compromises are essential to the functioning of a democratic society, influencing decisions and actions within the political sphere.
Themes
PoliticsMoralCompromisesOpportunitySociety
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the ethical challenges in government, this quote can illustrate the necessity of compromise.
More from Thomas Mann
All quotes →Stupid — well, there are so many kinds of stupidity, and cleverness is one of the worst.
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.
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
Similar quotes
So from then on, he looked at all his choices and said, What would a good person do, and then did it. But he has now learned something very important about human nature. If you spend your whole life pretending to be good, then you are indistinguishable from a good person. Relentless hypocrisy eventually becomes the truth.
Orson Scott CardRead
If one could conclude as to the nature of the Creator from a study of creation it would appear that God has an inordinate fondness for stars and beetles.
John B. S. HaldaneRead
People's ability to forget what they do not want to know, to overlook what is before their eyes, was seldom put to the test better than in Germany at that time.
W. G. SebaldRead
I am not perfect. I just think that imperfections are beautiful.
Lady GagaRead
Can there be in our age any peace that is not honorable, any war that is not dishonorable?
Charles SumnerRead
He existed a step or two to one side of the common world, largely out of sight, a shadow, all but invisible. Whatever he owned, either he could hoist it on his back and lug it along or he could walk away from it. Anonymity was the thing he loved most about the city, being a part of it and apart from it at the same time.
James SallisRead