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
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.
In practice
In a debate on civil rights, this quote can illustrate the struggle between personal freedoms and the pursuit of equality.
The task of a writer consists of being able to make something out of an idea.
Stupid — well, there are so many kinds of stupidity, and cleverness is one of the worst.
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.
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.
Every one sees what you appear to be, few really know what you are, and those few dare not oppose themselves to the opinion of the many, who have the majesty of the state to defend them.
Time heals griefs and quarrels, for we change and are no longer the same persons. Neither the offender nor the offended are any more themselves.
Return good for good; return evil with justice.
Even the laws of justice themselves cannot subsist without mixture of injustice.
Surely the glory of journalism is its transience.
There couldn't be a society of people who didn't dream. They'd be dead in two weeks.
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