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Stefan Zweig

Stefan Zweig Quotes

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Famous Stefan Zweig Quotes

“Sometimes I have the feeling that you are not quite aware--and this honors you--of the historical greatness of your position, that you think too modestly about yourself. Everything you do is destined to be of historic significance. One day, your letters, your decisions, will belong to all mankind, like those of Wagner and Brahms.”

ThinkingSometimesFeelingsDecisionMankindPositionGreatnessHonorOne DayLettersHistoricalSignificanceAbout YourselfDestinedHistoricWagnerBrahms
Book:A Confidential Matter: The Letters of Richard Strauss and Stefan Zweig, 1931-1935
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“What is noble, lyrical, tender in the upper level shown is also with the servants, scoundrels, and scamps, as in a distorting mirror. This contrast seems to me a most appealing musical theme--to show love in its noble and crude forms, romanticism and crass realism mixed as in everyday life.”

ShowsSeemsFormLevelsMirrorsEverydayMusicalNobleServantThemeContrastRealismEveryday LifeRomanticismCrudeLyricalScoundrelsCrass
Book:A Confidential Matter: The Letters of Richard Strauss and Stefan Zweig, 1931-1935
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“All the pale horses of the apocalypse have stormed through my life, revolution, starvation, devaluation of currency and terror, epidemics, emigration; I have seen the great ideologies of the masses grow and spread out before my eyes. Fascism in Italy, National Socialism in Germany, Bolshevism in Russia, and, above all, that archpestilence, nationalism, which poisoned our flourishing European culture.”

EyeCultureGrowsRevolutionMassHorseTerrorSpreadRussiaSocialismIdeologyGermanyNationalismFascismPaleCurrencyApocalypseStarvationEpidemicsFlourishingEmigrationBolshevism
Author:Stefan Zweig
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“Adultery is in most cases a theft in the dark. At such moments almost every woman betrays her husband's innermost secrets; becomes a Delilah who discloses to a stranger, discloses to her lover, the mysteries of her husband's strength or weakness. What seems to me treason is, not that women give themselves, but that a woman is prone, when she does so, to justify herself to herself by uncovering her husband's nakedness, exposing it to the inquisitive and scornful gaze of a stranger.”

GivingDoeMomentsSeemsDarkSecretCasesMysteryLoversHusbandWeaknessStrangerJustifyBetrayAdulteryTheftTreasonExposingInquisitiveUncovering
Book:Stories and Legends
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“When one does another person an injustice, in some mysterious way it does one good to discover (or to persuade oneself) that the injured party has also behaved badly or unfairly in some little matter or other; it is always a relief to the conscience if one can apportion some measure of guilt to the person one has betrayed.”

IfsWayLittlesPersonsDoeMatterPartyConscienceGuiltInjusticeOneselfBetrayalMysteriousReliefBetrayedInjuredMysterious Ways
Author:Stefan Zweig
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“In my youth and comparative inexperience I had always regarded the yearning and pangs of love as the worst torture that could afflict the human heart. At this moment, however, I began to realize that there was another and perhaps grimmer torture than that of longing and desiring: that of being loved against one's will and of being unable to defend oneself against the urgency of another's passion; of seeing another human being seared by the flame of her desire and of having to look impotently, lacking the power, the capacity, the strength to pluck her from the flames.”

LoveHumansLooksHeartMomentsDesirePassionRealizingHuman BeingsSeeingWorstYouthCapacityLongingOneselfFlamesTortureYearningLackingHuman HeartUrgencyBeing LovedPluckInexperience
Author:Stefan Zweig
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“He who is himself crossed in love is able from time to time to master his passion, for he is not the creature but the creator of his own misery; and if a lover is unable to control his passion, he at least knows that he is himself to blame for his sufferings. But he who is loved without reciprocating that love is lost beyond redemption, for it is not in his power to set a limit to that other's passion, to keep it within bounds, and the strongest will is reduced to impotence in the face of another's desire.”

IfsKnowsLoveAbleFacesDesireSufferingPassionLostLove IsMastersLoversCreaturesLimitsBlameMiseryBoundsCreatorRedemptionStrongestImpotenceLove Is Lost
Author:Stefan Zweig
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“Again and again, faith in a possible satisfaction of the human race breaks through at the very moments of most zealous discord because humankind will never be able to live and work without this consoling delusion of its ascent into morality, without this dream of final and ultimate accord.”

HumansMomentsDreamAbleFaithHumanityPeaceRaceBreakMoralityUltimateFinalsSatisfactionHuman RaceDelusionHumankindAgain And AgainAccordBreak ThroughDiscordAscentZealousConsoling
Author:Stefan Zweig
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“In their overestimation of the role of civilization, the humanists misunderstand the primary forces of the world of primitive human drives with their untamable violence. With their optimistic view of the role of culture, they (the humanists) trivialize the terrifying, hardly solvable problems of mass hatred and of the great passionate psychoses of the human race.”

WorldHumansProblemHateHumanityCultureForceViewsRaceRolesViolenceCivilizationMassHatredPassionateOptimisticPrimariesHuman RacePrimitivePsychosisGreat Passion
Author:Stefan Zweig
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“Erasmus was the light of his century; others were its strength: he lighted the way; others knew how to walk on it while he himselfremained in the shadow as the source of light always does. But he who points the way into a new era is no less worthy of veneration than he who is the first to enter it; those who work invisibly have also accomplished a feat.”

WayFirstsDoeLightLeadershipWalksHistoryCenturySourceShadowWorthyErasAccomplishedFeatsNew EraVenerationErasmus
Author:Stefan Zweig
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“Every epoch which seeks renewal first projects its ideal into a human form. In order to comprehend its own essence tangibly, the spirit of the time chooses a human being as its prototype and raising this single individual, often one upon whom it has chanced to come, far beyond his measure, the spirit enthuses itself for its own enthusiasm.”

FirstsHumansFormSpiritOrderIndividualChangeHuman BeingsHistoryProjectsIdealsEssenceEnthusiasmRenewalEpochHuman FormPrototype
Author:Stefan Zweig
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“Of course, in the reality of history, the Machiavellian view which glorifies the principle of violence has been able to dominate.Not the compromising conciliatory politics of humaneness, not the Erasmian, but rather the politics of vested power which firmly exploits every opportunity, politics in the sense of the "Principe," has determined the development of European history ever since.”

Has BeensRealityAbleCoursesOpportunityViewsPrinciplesHistoryViolenceDevelopmentEuropeDeterminedCompromiseExploitsGlorifyEuropean History
Author:Stefan Zweig
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“But nothing is better than a truth which appears not to have the semblance of truth. There is always something incomprehensible about the great heroic deeds performed by humanity because they rise so far beyond the mediocre measure of mere mortals; but it is always only because of the incredible feats that human beings have accomplished that humanity recovers its faith in itself.”

HumansTruthHumanityHuman BeingsMereIncrediblesDeedsMortalsAccomplishedHeroicMediocreFeatsSemblanceMere MortalsHeroic Deeds
Author:Stefan Zweig
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“This is the first time in history that a war has involved the whole world, and also it may last many years more; this thought is soul-shattering for all of us as human beings. It is horrible to think that the crimes committed by this one man Hitler have these many years been destroying the lives of hundreds of thousands and millions, and one would despair entirely were it not certain that the majority, the innumerable majority which opposes him openly or secretly, will succeed in wiping out once and for all him and his.”

ThinkingMenWorldLifeYearsFirstsHumansMayWarSoulWholeLastsCertainHumanityHuman BeingsMillionsCrimeInvolvedSucceedDespairFirst TimeMajorityCommittedWhole WorldHorribleOne ManDestroyingShatteringWiping Out
Book:Stefan and Friderike Zweig: their correspondence, 1912-1942
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“Art knows no happier moment than the opportunity to show the symmetry of an extreme, during that moment of spheric harmony when the dissonance dissolves for the blink of an eye, dissolves into a blissful harmony, when the most extreme opposites, coming together from the greatest alienation, fleetingly touch with lips of the word and of love.”

KnowsArtMomentsShowsEyeTogetherOpportunityOppositesHarmonyLipsExtremesThat MomentAlienationBlinkSymmetryComing TogetherDissonanceBlink Of An Eye
Author:Stefan Zweig
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“He who has been impoverished for a long timewho has long stood before the door of the mighty in darkness and begged for alms,has filled his heart with bitterness so that it resembles a sponge full of gall; he knows about the injustice and folly of all human action and sometimes his lips tremble with rage and a stifled scream.”

KnowsHumansHeartLongHas BeensSometimesActionDarknessDoorsFilledInjusticeLipsRageFollyBitternessScreamSpongesAlmsHuman Actions
Author:Stefan Zweig
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