"There were profound reasons for his attachment to the sea: he loved it because as a hardworking artist he needed rest, needed to escape from the demanding complexity of phenomena and lie hidden on the bosom of the simple and tremendous; because of a forbidden longing deep within him that ran quite contrary to his life's task and was for that very reason seductive, a longing for the unarticulated and immeasurable, for eternity, for nothingness. To rest in the arms of perfection is the desire of any man intent upon creating excellence; and is not nothingness a form of perfection?"

Excellence Art Eternity Nothingness

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About Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann was a German novelist and essayist, awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1929. Born in Lübeck on 1875-06-06, he wrote major works including Buddenbrooks, Death in Venice, and The Magic Mountain. He died near Zürich on 1955-08-12.

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