"There were profound reasons for his attachment to the sea: he loved it because as a hard-working 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?"
Thomas Mann

January 1, 1970

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Added on April 10, 2026
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Original Language: English

Sources

Ch. 3, as translated by David Luke

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Mann