Thomas Mann

In their young days, Thomas Mann’s friend, Paul Ehrenberg, apparently made something of a fool of himself in a play for Mann’s sister, and Mann teases him for it in a letter to him. In this excerpt, he mocks the whole idea of love.

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With all due respect for “love,” one does get further without it. A truism, by the way, that is rather repugnant to me personally. But what can one do on this inferior planet?

-- Thomas Mann (1900)

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[Source: Richard and Clara Winston, editors, “Letters of Thoman Mann”]