“Only indifference is free. What is distinctive is never free, it is stamped with its own seal, conditioned and chained.”

—  Thomas Mann

As quoted in Sculpting in Time (1996), by Andrei Tarkovsky, p. 56

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Oct. 1, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Only indifference is free. What is distinctive is never free, it is stamped with its own seal, conditioned and chained." by Thomas Mann?
Thomas Mann photo
Thomas Mann 159
German novelist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate 1875–1955

Related quotes

Franz Kafka photo

“Even that has its reason; it is often better to be in chains than to be free.”

Source: The Trial (1920), Ch. 8

John Dewey photo

“To free one's mind of chains is to free it of the care of what is acceptable or viewed so by society, this is when true freedom is discovered.”

John Dewey (1859–1952) American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer

This text is commentary (not a quotation of Dewey) that was added to this page at [//en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=John_Dewey&diff=prev&oldid=896209 05:36, 2 February 2009 (UTC)]; the text was later removed from this page but not before being misattributed to Dewey on several web sites, including in a sermon given at an Episcopal church https://web.archive.org/web/20160304201732/http://www.trinitywhitinsville.org/sermons/theprudenceofgenerosity.html. The statement was commenting on a quotation from Democracy and Education (1916): "The first step in freeing men from external chains was to emancipate them from the internal chains of false beliefs and ideals."
Misattributed

Friedrich Schiller photo

“Man is created free, and is free,
Though he be born in chains.”

Die Worte des Glaubens (The Word of the Faithful), st. 2 (1797)

Edwin Abbott Abbott photo

“Expediency therefore concurs with Nature in stamping the seal of its approval upon Regularity of conformation.”

Source: Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (1884), PART I: THIS WORLD, Chapter 7. Concerning Irregular Figures

Swami Samarpanananda photo

“Involvement kills, indifference frees.”

Swami Samarpanananda Monk, Author, Teacher

Tiya-A Parrot's Journey Home ( Page 124 )

Michelle Wu photo

“We all benefit when we stamp out injustice. We are all healthier when reproductive care is available to our communities. We are all free only if we are all free.”

Michelle Wu (1985) City Councilor in Boston, Massachusetts

24 June 2022 "Boston Mayor Michelle Wu says overturning Roe v. Wade will 'ruin lives'" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrmQGDRoWCY

Jean Jacques Rousseau photo
Bob Dylan photo

“No one is free, even the birds are chained to the sky.”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist
Voltaire photo

“It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.”

Voltaire (1694–1778) French writer, historian, and philosopher

Il est bien malaisé (puisqu’il faut enfin m’expliquer) d’ôter à des insensés des chaînes qu’ils révèrent.
Le dîner du comte de Boulainvilliers (1767): Troisième Entretien
Citas

Karl Marx photo

“In place of the bourgeois society, with its classes and class antagonisms, shall we have an association, in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.”

Karl Marx (1818–1883) German philosopher, economist, sociologist, journalist and revolutionary socialist

Source: The Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848), Section 2, paragraph 72 (last paragraph).

Related topics