No one remains quite what he was when he recognizes himself.

The line suggests that self-recognition is not a neutral act of discovery but a transformative event. To “recognize himself” implies a moment of clear-eyed self-knowledge—about one’s desires, motives, limitations, or moral situation. That recognition alters the person who has it: innocence, self-deception, or unexamined identity cannot be fully recovered once insight arrives. Mann often explores how consciousness and reflection complicate life, making characters more divided, ironic, or responsible. Here, the quote captures a paradox: the self becomes most itself through understanding, yet that very understanding changes what the self is. Self-knowledge is thus both revelation and rupture.