The task of a writer consists of being able to make something out of an idea.
Thomas MannRead
Often I have thought of the day when I gazed for the first time at the sea. The sea is vast, the sea is wide, my eyes roved far and wide and longed to be free. But there was the horizon. Why a horizon, when I wanted the infinite from life?
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects the human desire for freedom and the search for the infinite in life amidst limitations.
In this quote, Thomas Mann contemplates the longing for boundless experiences and freedom symbolized by the sea and its horizon. While the sea represents vast possibilities, the horizon signifies the inherent limitations in life that prevent us from achieving the infinite, highlighting the tension between aspiration and reality.
Themes
FreedomInfiniteLifeHorizonSea
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech about pursuing dreams and aspirations.
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
War: a massacre of people who don't know each other for the profit of people who know each other but don't massacre each other.
Paul ValeryRead
For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors and laugh at them in our turn?
Jane AustenRead
Ten truths must you find during the day; otherwise will you seek truth during the night, and your soul will have been hungry.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
We are not to expect perfection in this world; but mankind, in modern times, have apparently made some progress in the science of government.
George WashingtonRead
The mystery of a person, indeed, is ever divine to him that has a sense for the godlike.
Thomas CarlyleRead
Why I oppose the nuclear-arms race: I prefer the human race.
Edward AbbeyRead