It is a strange fact that freedom and equality, the two basic ideas of democracy, are to some extent contradictory. Logically considered, freedom and equality are mutually exclusive, just as society and the individual are mutually exclusive. – Thomas Mann
For the sake of goodness and love, man shall let death have no sovereignty over his thoughts. – Thomas Mann
What we call National-Socialism is the poisonous perversion of ideas which have a long history in German intellectual life. – Thomas Mann
Respectable means rich, and decent means poor. I should die if I heard my family called decent. – Thomas Mann
Patience is better than wisdom: an ounce of patience is worth a pound of brains. All men praise patience, but few enough can practise it; it is a medicine which is good for all diseases, and therefore every old woman recommends it; but it is not every garden that grows the herbs to make it with. – Charles H. Spurgeon (1834–1892), “On Patience” (John Ploughman)