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Unhappy German nation, how do you like the Messianic role allotted to you, not by God, nor by destiny, but by a handful of perverted and bloody-minded men?

— Thomas Mann This War (1939)

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Fate

More quotes by Thomas Mann

I stand between two worlds, am at home in neither, and in consequence have rather a hard time of it.

Tonio Kröger (1902)

The writer's joy is the thought that can become emotion, the emotion that can wholly become a thought.

Death in Venice (1912)

Time cools, time clarifies, no mood can be maintained quite unaltered through the course of hours.

The Magic Mountain (1924)

Order and simplification are the first steps toward the mastery of a subject — the actual enemy is the unknown.

The Magic Mountain (1924)

If you are possessed by an idea, you find it expressed everywhere, you even smell it.

Tonio Kröger (1902)

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One country, one constitution, one destiny.

Daniel Webster

We may not have chosen the time, but the time has chosen us.

John Lewis

Destiny is not a matter of chance; it is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for; it is a thing to be achieved.

William Jennings Bryan

“Destiny,” said John. “The ghastliest word a man can speak.”

Poul Anderson The Corridors of Time (1965)

Attribution

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.