Original text (French)
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.
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind.
To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.
Not for the body, but for the heart; companion and company are needed.
Love seldom haunts the breast where learning lies,
And Venus sets ere Mercury can rise.
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.