Death in Venice

by Thomas Mann

to reach Venice by land, on the railroad, was like entering a palace from the rear, and that this most unreal of cities should not be approached except as he was now doing, by ship, over the high seas.

this spectacle of carefree, civilized people getting sensuous enjoyment at the very edge of the elements.

he let his eyes lose themselves in the expanses of the sea, his gaze gliding, blurring, and failing in the monotone mist of the wilderness of space.

Since it had been shown for the second time that the city affected his health, since he was compelled for the second time to get away in all haste, from now on he would have to consider it a place impossible and forbidden to him, a place which he was not equal to, and which it would be foolish for him to visit again.

beauty alone is both lovely and visible at once; it is, mark me, the only form of the spiritual which we can receive through the senses.