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Stefan Zweig

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Famous Stefan Zweig Quotes

“In some mysterious way, once one has gained an insight into human nature, that insight grows from day to day, and he to whom it has given to experience vicariously even one single form of earthly suffering acquires, by reason of this tragic lesson, an understanding of all its forms, even those most foreign to him, and apparently abnormal.”

WayHumansReasonFormSufferingGivenGrowsUnderstandingHuman NatureLessonsInsightMysteriousAcquireTragicDay To DayAbnormalMysterious Ways
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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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“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
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“As nature requires whirlwinds and cyclones to release its excessive force in a violent revolt against its own existence, so the spirit requires a demonic human being from time to time whose excessive strength rebels against the community of thought and the monotony of moralityonly by looking at those beyond its limits does humanity come to know its own utmost limits.”

KnowsHumansDoeSpiritHumanityForceCommunityHuman BeingsExistenceProgressLimitsViolentReleaseRebelRevoltMonotonyDemonicCyclonesExcessive Force
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“Human life is so strangely constituted that even perfected intellectual understanding combined with the richest experience is incapable of conquering innate weaknesses. Even if it thoroughly analyzes itself, psychology (and this is one of the dubious aspects of psychoanalysis) can, to be sure, recognize its flawed native characteristics, but it cannot eliminate them. Understanding (them) is not the same as overcoming (them) and, again and again, we see the wisest of human beings helpless in the fact of their small follies which everyone else observes with a smile.”

IfsHumansFactsLife IsUnderstandingHuman BeingsPsychologyHuman NatureIntellectualWeaknessAspectOvercomingConquerHuman LifeCharacteristicsFollyNativeAgain And AgainHelplessIncapableFlawedInnatePsychoanalysisWisestDubious
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“Fate forces its way to the powerful and violent. With subservient obedience it will assume for years dependency on one individual:Caesar, Alexander, Napoleon, because it loves the elemental human being who grows to resemble it, the intangible element. Sometimes, and these are the most astonishing moments in world history, the thread of fate falls into the hands of a complete nobody but only for a twitching minute.”

WorldWayYearsHumansSometimesMomentsHandsFallIndividualForceGrowsLeadershipHuman BeingsPowerfulFateMinutesGreatnessElementsAssumingViolentObedienceThreadWorld HistoryAstonishingDependencyIntangibleElementalsSubservientTwitching
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“As one who knows many things, the humanist loves the world precisely because of its manifold nature and the opposing forces in itdo not frighten him. Nothing is further from him than the desire to resolve such conflictsand this is precisely the mark of the humanist spirit: not to evaluate contrasts as hostility but to seek human unity, that superior unity, for all that appears irreconcilable.”

KnowsWorldHumansSpiritDesireForceMarkUnityToleranceSuperiorsResolveHumanistContrastHostilityEvaluateOpposingManifold
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“The world has always needed human beings who refuse to believe that history is nothing but a dull, monstrous selfrepetition, a selfperpetuating, meaningless game, only varied in outer garb, who cannot be converted from their conviction that history signifies progress in morality, that our race is ascending on an invisible ladder from an animal nature towards divinity, from brutal violence to the wisely ordering intellect, and that the ultimate stage of complete understanding is already close at hand, indeed has almost been attained.”

WorldBelieveHumansHandsGamesUnderstandingGrowthHuman BeingsAnimalRaceProgressViolenceStageNeededMoralityGoodnessUltimateRefuseConvictionIntellectInvisibleDullDivinityMeaninglessBrutalLaddersMonstrousAscending
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“Only ambition is fired by the coincidences of success and easy accomplishment but nothing is quite as splendidly uplifting to the heart as the defeat of a human being who battles against the invincible superiority of fate. This is always the most grandiose of all tragedies, one sometimes created by a dramatist but created thousands of times by life.”

HumansHeartSometimesEasyHuman BeingsFateBattleAmbitionTragedyDefeatUpliftingAccomplishmentSuperiorityCoincidenceInvincibleGrandiose
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“There are two types of compassion. One - is faint-hearted and sentimental. Actually, it is nothing more than impatience of the heart, that is hurrying to get rid of that hard feeling when you see other peoples' sufferings; this is not a compassion, but just an instinct will to defence yourself from misfortunes of others. But there is another compassion - real one, that demands for actions, not sentiments, it knows what it wants, and it is full of determination to do everything, what is in human power and even beyond it.”

KnowsWantLoveHumansHeartTwoRealHardFeelingsDreamActionSufferingCompassionTypeDemandDeterminationInstinctSentimentsMisfortunesSentimentalHeartedDefenceImpatienceHurryingReal OnesHuman PowerMisfortunes Of OthersFaint Hearted
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“Each of us, even the lowliest and most insignificant among us, was uprooted from his innermost existence by the almost constant volcanic upheavals visited upon our European soil and, as one of countless human beings, I can't claim any special place for myself except that, as an Austrian, a Jew, writer, humanist and pacifist, I have always been precisely in those places where the effects of the thrusts were most violent.”

HumansI CanHuman BeingsExistenceSpecialEffectsClaimsConstantJewViolentSoilHumanistInsignificantThrustPacifistSpecial PlacesUpheaval
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“Decisive inventions and discoveries always are initiated by an intellectual or moral stimulus as their actual motivating force, but, usually, the final impetus to human action is given by material impulses ... merchants stood as a driving force behind the heroes of the age of discovery; this first heroic impulse to conquer the world emanated from very mortal forces”

WorldFirstsHumansAgeActionGivenForceBehindsMoralMaterialsHeroIntellectualDiscoveryFinalsDrivingInventionMortalsConquerImpulseHeroicStimulusMerchantsDriving ForceHuman ActionsImpetusConquer The World
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