And life? Life itself? Was it perhaps only an infection, a sickening of matter? Was that which one might call the original procreation of matter only a disease, a growth produced by morbid stimulation of the immaterial? The first step toward evil, toward desire and death, was taken precisely then, when there took place that first increase in the density of the spiritual, that pathologically luxuriant morbid growth, produced by the irritant of some unknown infiltration; this, in part pleasurable, in part a motion of self-defense, was the primeval stage of matter, the transition from the insubstantial to the substance. This was the Fall. Thomas Mann
About This Quote

The idea that life, in the form of a disease, was a product of a diseased state of matter. This quote is about the very creation of the universe and how it occurred through a diseased state of matter. The creator, for this quote is speaking in the voice of God, implies that creation was a mistake and that it should not have happened because matter was not supposed to be created. In the end, creation will all be destroyed and become nothing but an empty void.

Source: The Magic Mountain

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