He loved the sea for deep-seated reasons: the hardworking artist's need for repose, the desire to take shelter from the demanding diversity of phenomena in the bosom of boundless simplicity, a propensity–proscribed and diametrically opposed to his mission in life and for that very reason seductive–a propensity for the unarticulated, the immoderate, the eternal, for nothingness. To repose in perfection is the desire of all those who strive for excellence, and is not nothingness a form of perfection? . Thomas Mann
About This Quote

Artists are not naturally suited to being workaholics. They are happiest when they have time off to pursue their passions. This quote captures the essence of the artist's need for leisure.

Source: Death In Venice

Some Similar Quotes
  1. Some women choose to follow men, and some women choose to follow their dreams. If you're wondering which way to go, remember that your career will never wake up and tell you that it doesn't love you anymore. - Lady Gaga
  2. Work without love is slavery. - Mother Teresa
  3. There is no time for cut-and-dried monotony. There is time for work. And time for love. That leaves no other time. - Coco Chanel
  4. Productiveness is your acceptance of morality, your recognition of the fact that you choose to live--that productive work is the process by which man's consciousness controls his existence, a constant process of acquiring knowledge and shaping matter to fit one's purpose, of translating an idea... - Ayn Rand
  5. I want to live the rest of my life, however long or short, with as much sweetness as I can decently manage, loving all the people I love, and doing as much as I can of the work I still have to do. I am... - Audre Lorde
More Quotes By Thomas Mann
  1. It is love, not reason, that is stronger than death.
  2. Nothing is more curious and awkward than the relationship of two people who only know each other with their eyes – who meet and observe each other daily, even hourly and who keep up the impression of disinterest either because of morals or because of...
  3. Forbearance in the face of fate, beauty constant under torture, are not merely passive. They are a positive achievement, an explicit triumph.
  4. Laughter is a sunbeam of the soul.
  5. He took in the squeaky music, the vulgar and pining melodies, because passion immobilizes good taste and seriously considers what soberly would be thought of as funny and to be resented.
Related Topics