Even in a personal sense, after all, art is an intensified life. By art one is more deeply satisfied and more rapidly used up. It engraves on the countenance of its servant the traces of imaginary and intellectual adventures, and even if he has outwardly existed in cloistral tranquility, it leads in the long term to overfastidiousness, over-refinement, nervous fatigue and overstimulation, such as can seldom result from a life of the most extravagant passions and pleasures.
托马斯·曼(Thomas Mann,1875年6月6日—1955年8月12日),德国小说家和散文家,出生于德国北部卢卑克城一家望族。1924年发表长篇小说《魔山》。1929年度获得诺贝尔文学奖。