Javir Wright

“Aimer... aimer... Qu'est-ce que c'est? Qa manque de définition, ce mot-là. Was der eine hat, liebt der andere, comme nous Allemands disons proverbialment.”
― Thomas Mann, Der Zauberberg (Jubiläumsausgabe zum 70. Geburtstag Thomas Manns)

“Love . . . love. What is it, exactly? The word lacks definition. What one man has, the other loves, as the German proverb puts it”
― Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain

“Disease was a perverse, a dissolute form of life. And life? Life itself? Was it perhaps only an infection, a sickening of matter? Was that which one might call the original procreation of matter only a disease, a growth produced by morbid stimulation of the immaterial? The first step toward evil, toward desire and death, was taken precisely then, when there took place that first increase in the density of the spiritual, that pathologically luxuriant morbid growth, produced by the irritant of some unknown infiltration; this, in part pleasurable, in part a motion of self-defence, was the primeval stage of matter, the transition from the insubstantial to the substance. This was the Fall. The second creation, the birth of the organic out of the inorganic, was only another fatal stage in the progress of the corporeal toward consciousness, just as disease in the organism was an intoxication, a heightening and unlicensed accentuation of its physical state; and life, life was nothing but the next step on the reckless path of the spirit dishonored; nothing but the automatic blush of matter roused to sensation and become receptive for that which awaked it.”
― Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain

“Nuestra muerte es más un asunto de los que nos sobreviven que de nosotros mismos. Tanto si recordamos eso o no por el momento, esas palabras de un sabio malicioso son, en todo caso, valederas para el alma: "Mientras existimos, la muerte no existe, y, cuando la muerte existe, no existimos nosotros", por consiguiente, entre la muerte y nosotros no hay ninguna relación real; es una cosa que no nos atañe absolutamente en nada, que atañe todo lo mas al mundo y la naturaleza, y por eso todos los seres la contemplan con una gran tranquilidad y una incidencia egoísta.”
― Thomas Mann, La montaña mágica