“Gustav Aschenbach was the writer who spoke for all those who work on the brink of exhaustion, who labor and are heavy-laden, who are worn out already but still stand upright, all those moralists of achievement who are slight of stature and scanty of resources, but who yet, by some ecstasy of the will and by wise husbandry, manage at least for a time to force their work into a semblance of greatness.”

— Thomas Mann , book Death in Venice

Source: Death in Venice (1912), Ch. 2, as translated by David Luke

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Thomas Mann 159

German novelist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate 1875–1955

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