“Ironic philosophies produce passionate works.”
Albert Camus book The Myth of Sisyphus
The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), Absurd Creation
Context: Ironic philosophies produce passionate works.
Any thought that abandons unity glorifies diversity! And diversity is the home of art. The only thought to liberate the mind is that which leaves it alone, certain of its limits and of its impending end. No doctrine tempts it. It awaits the ripening of the work and of life. <!-- 116
Albert Camus (1913–1960) French author and journalist
Source: "Intuitions" (October 1932), published in Youthful Writings (1976)
“A writer is essentially a man who does not resign himself to loneliness.”
Francois Mauriac (1885–1970) French author
“If the flame inside you goes out, the souls that are next to you will die of cold.”
Francois Mauriac (1885–1970) French author
“To love someone is to see a miracle invisible to others.”
Francois Mauriac (1885–1970) French author
“Classes will dull your mind, destroy the potential for authentic creativity.”
John Nash (1928–2015) American mathematician and Nobel Prize laureate
“You don't have to be a mathematician to have a feel for numbers.”
John Nash (1928–2015) American mathematician and Nobel Prize laureate
Statement of 2006, partly cited in Stop Making Sense: Music from the Perspective of the Real (2015) by Scott Wilson, p. 117
2000s
Context: You don't have to be a mathematician to have a feel for numbers. A movie, by the way, was made — sort of a small-scale offbeat movie — called Pi recently. I think it starts off with a big string of digits running across the screen, and then there are people who get concerned with various things, and in the end this Bible code idea comes up. And that ties in with numbers, so the relation to numbers is not necessarily scientific, and even when I was mentally disturbed, I had a lot of interest in numbers.
“The only thing greater than the power of the mind is the courage of the heart”
John Nash (1928–2015) American mathematician and Nobel Prize laureate
Thomas Mann book The Magic Mountain
Source: The Magic Mountain (1924), Ch. 4
Context: Writing well was almost the same as thinking well, and thinking well was the next thing to acting well. All moral discipline, all moral perfection derived from the soul of literature, from the soul of human dignity, which was the moving spirit of both humanity and politics. Yes, they were all one, one and the same force, one and the same idea, and all of them could be comprehended in one single word... The word was — civilization!
Thomas Mann (1875–1955) German novelist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate
Reflections of a Non-Political Man [Betrachtungen eines Unpolitischen] (1918)
Context: The important thing for me, then, is not the "work," but my life. Life is not the means for the achievement of an esthetic ideal of perfection; on the contrary, the work is an ethical symbol of life.
Thomas Mann (1875–1955) German novelist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate
Source: The Beloved Returns (1939), Ch. 7
Context: Hold fast the time! Guard it, watch over it, every hour, every minute! Unregarded it slips away, like a lizard, smooth, slippery, faithless, a pixy wife. Hold every moment sacred. Give each clarity and meaning, each the weight of thine awareness, each its true and due fulfillment.
“Every reasonable human being should be a moderate Socialist.”
Thomas Mann (1875–1955) German novelist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate
As quoted in The New York Times (18 June 1950); also in Thomas Mann: A Critical Study (1971) by R. J. Hollingdale, Ch. 2
“The death of one man is a just death, the death of two millions is a statistic.”
Erich Maria Remarque book The Black Obelisk
Aber das ist wohl so, weil ein einzelner immer der Tod ist — und zwei Millionen immer nur eine Statistik.
Der schwarze Obelisk (1956)
A variant of this quote "One death is a tragedy. A million deaths is just a statistic." has also been attributed to Joseph Stalin, but no source for this has been found. This version appeared in the English press not later than 1958. (Ремарк, Эрих Мария // Словарь современных цитат / составитель К. В. Душенко — Москва: изд-во «Эксмо», 2006)
“Love should not be polluted with friendship.”
Erich Maria Remarque (1898–1970) German novelist
Source: Arch of Triumph: A Novel of a Man Without a Country
“It's no shame to be born stupid. Only to die stupid.”
Erich Maria Remarque book Three Comrades
Source: Three Comrades
“Good or ill, life is life; you only realize that when you have to risk it.”
Erich Maria Remarque book The Black Obelisk
Source: The Black Obelisk
