We live not according to reason, but according to fashion.

It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that things are difficult

A sword by itself does not slay; it is merely the weapon used by the slayer.

The important thing about a problem is not its solution, but the strength we gain in finding the solution

Don't stumble over something behind you.

We become wiser by adversity; prosperity destroys our appreciation of the right.

Great men rejoice in adversity, just as brave soldiers triumph in war.

When an author is too meticulous about his style, you may presume that his mind is frivolous and his content flimsy.

There in no one more unfortunate than the man who has never been unfortunate. for it has never been in his power to try himself.

It's all in your headJ you have the power to make things seem hard or easy or even amusing. The choice is yours.

Death is the wish of some, the relief of many, and the end of all.

Every person you meet in your life is your destiny. We alter the course of every life we touch, whether we realize it or not.

Knowing is never the same with understanding.

All I knew was that I would die if he sent me away. He shrugged. You can cut a man’s heart out with a shrug, did you know that?

Here take back the stuff that I am, nature, knead it back into the dough of being, make of me a bush, a cloud, whatever you will, even a man, only no longer make me.

Starting a novel is opening a door on a misty landscape; you can still see very little but you can smell the earth and feel the wind blowing.

Silence is complicity. Speak now or surrender your ground.

Few would dispute with the rose her claim to be the queen of flowers, for where is her equal to be found? Is she not God’s masterpiece?

One cannot be strong without love. For love is not an irrelevant emotion; it is the blood of life.

After the success of Buddenbrooks, he married and fathered six children. Yet the surviving diaries tell us of recurrent sexual problems - and of Katia Mann's extremely sympathetic response to them

Fascinatingly confident, rude people are great.