Stefan Zweig Quotes

One can run away from anything but oneself.

In history as in human life, regret does not bring back a lost moment and a thousand years will not recover something lost in a single hour.

Truth to tell, we are all criminals if we remain silent.

Only the person who has experienced light and darkness, war and peace, rise and fall, only that person has truly experienced life.

It is never until one realizes that one means something to others that one feels there is any point or purpose in one's own existence.

Time to leave now, get out of this room, go somewhere, anywhere; sharpen this feeling of happiness and freedom, stretch your limbs, fill your eyes, be awake, wider awake, vividly awake in every sense and every pore.

Freedom is not possible without authority - otherwise it would turn into chaos and authority is not possible without freedom - otherwise it would turn into tyranny.

Happy people are poor psychologists.

All I know is that I shall be alone again. There is nothing more terrible than to be alone among human beings.

Health alone does not suffice. To be happy, to become creative, man must always be strengthened by faith in the meaning of his own existence.

No guilt is forgotten so long as the conscience still knows of it.

Every wave, regardless of how high and forceful it crests, must eventually collapse within itself.

Memory is so corrupt that you remember only what you want to; if you want to forget about something, slowly but surely you do.

To grow old means to be rid of anxieties about the past.

If you are going to sell yourself, you should at least get a good price.

The free, independent spirit who commits himself to no dogma and will not decide in favor of any party has no homestead on earth.

Life is futile unless it be directed towards a definite goal.

Why is it that the stupidest people are always the most good-natured?

One never gets to know a person's character better than by watching his behavior during decisive moments.... It is always only danger which forces the most deeply hidden strengths and abilities of a human being to come forth.

One must be convinced to convince, to have enthusiasm to stimulate the others.

There is nothing more vindictive, nothing more underhanded, than a little world that would like to be a big one.

When they are preparing for war, those who rule by force speak most copiously about peace until they have completed the mobilization process.

Those whom fate has dealt hard knocks remain vulnerable for ever afterwards.

In history, the moments during which reason and reconciliation prevail are short and fleeting.

He who studies without passion will never become anything more than a pedant.