Asien verschlingt uns. Wohin man blickt: tatarische Gesichter.
Notes from Wikiquote
Settembrini in Ch. 5
Variants
Asia devours us. Wherever one looks: Tartar faces.
I stand between two worlds, am at home in neither, and in consequence have rather a hard time of it.
Time cools, time clarifies, no mood can be maintained quite unaltered through the course of hours.
If you are possessed by an idea, you find it expressed everywhere, you even smell it.
Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Thomas Mann (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.