Frases de Stefan Zweig

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“A primeira mostra de uma autêntica vocação política é, em todos os tempos, que um homem renuncie desde o princípio a exigir aquilo que lhe é inalcançável.”

“Sempre os que dizem de antemão que lutam em nome de Deus são pessoas menos pacíficas do mundo: como crêem que recebem mensagens celestiais, têm os ouvidos surdos para qualquer palavra de humanidade.”

“A calma é um elemento criador. Purifica, recolhe, põe em ordem as forças internas, compensando o que o desordenado movimento dispersa.”

“Aqueles que anunciam que lutam a favor de Deus são sempre os homens menos pacíficos da terra. Como crêem receber mensagens celestiais, têm os ouvidos surdos a qualquer palavra de humanidade.”

“Cada um de nós é vencido apenas pelo destino que não soube dominar. Não há derrota que não tenha um significado e não represente também uma culpa.”

“Só goza a vida aquele que viva para viver e se lhe entregue livre e prodigamente. Todo aquele que fixa uma meta apenas a toca. O artista plasma, geralmente, o que não chega a viver.”

“A vida não dá coisa alguma sem retribuição e sobre cada coisa concedida pelo destino, há secretamente um preço, que cedo ou tarde deverá ser pago.”

“Toda a beleza do ser humano consiste em se tornar algo melhor do que se foi.”

“Nada torna as pessoas mais desnaturalizadas e insubordinadas do que uma longa e constante ociosidade.”

“Toda a ciência provém da dor. A dor procura sempre a causa das coisas, enquanto o bem-estar se inclina a estar quieto e a não olhar para trás.”

“A velhice não significa mais do que deixar de sofrer pelo passado.”

“Hábeis e frios calculadores podem vir demonstrar, ainda e sempre, que o sonho do erasmismo é impossível, e os factos poderão parecer dar-lhes razão; isso nao impede que sejam sempre necessários os seres que indicam aos povos aquilo que os aproxima e aquilo que os divide, e que renovam no coração dod homens a crença em mais alta humanidade. Há no legado de Erasmo uma promessa criadora. Aquele que mostra o espírito fora do seu quadro, nas dimensões da Humanidade, dá ao indivíduo uma forma sobre-humana; só as reivindicações ultrapessoais e que parecerem quase irrealizáveis, dão aos homens e aos povos a consciência da sua verdadeira medida.”

“Mas no espírito, há lugar para todas as oposições; mesmo o que nunca triunfa, na realidade, conserva um dinamismo eficaz, e são precisamente os sonhos que nao se podem efectivar os que se mostram mais invencíveis.”

“Envelhecer é apenas não ter mais medo do passado”

“Je ne cesse de m’étonner de la confusion et de l’insuffisance des idées à propos de ce pays, chez des hommes même cultivés er prenant intérêt à la politique, alors que le Brésil est sans aucun doute, destiné à être un facteur des plus importants dans le développement ultérieur de notre monde.”

“The feeling of self-assurance derived from physical achievement always transfers itself to the mental sphere.”

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

“Inevitably, in the secret chemistry of the emotions the feeling of pity for a sick person is imperceptibly bound up with tenderness.”

“States of profound happiness, like all other forms of intoxication, are apt to befuddle the wits; intense enjoyment of the present always makes one forget the past.”

“No one would ever believe how hard it is to be really alone in a city of millions when you don't have money.”

“Ever since the war he's had a low opinion of people and of nations, they're selfish, all of them, without the imagination to see the injustices they're perpetrating. The idealism of his youth, a belief in the moral mission of mankind and the enlightened spirit of the white race that he took from the lectures of John Stuart Mill and his followers, was buried once and for all in the bloody mire of Ypres and the chalk quarry at Soissons where his son met his death. Politics disgusts him, the cool conviviality of the club and the showy self-congratulation of the public banquet repel him; since the death of his son he's avoided making new acquaintances. His own generation's sour unwillingness to recognize the truth and its inability to adapt to the postwar era anger him, as does the younger generation's smart-alecky thoughtlessness. But with this girl he's regained belief, a vague devout gratitude for the mere existence of youth; in her presence he sees that one generation's painfully acquired mistrust of life is fortunately neither understood nor credited by the next, and that each new wave of youth is a new beginning.”

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

“Long-protracted suffering is apt to exhaust not only the invalid, but the compassion of others; violent emotions cannot be prolonged endlessly.”

“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.”

“It is not the healthy, the confident, the proud, the joyous, the happy, that one must love - they have no need of one's love! Arrogant and indifferent, they accept love only as homage that is theirs to command, as their due. The devotion of another is to them a mere embellishment, an ornament for the hair, a bracelet on the arm, not the whole meaning and bliss of their lives. Only those with whom life has dealt hardly, the wretched, the slighted, the uncertain, the unlovely, the humiliated, could really be helped by love. He who devotes his life to them atones to them for what life has taken from them. They alone know how to love and be loved as one should love - gratefully and humbly.”

“Youth is always right. Those who follow the counsels of youth are wise.”

“Immanuel Kant lived with knowledge as with his lawfully wedded wife, slept with it in the same intellectual bed for forty years and begot an entire German race of philosophical systems.”

“You're going to tell me that poverty's nothing to be ashamed of. It's not true, though. If you can't hide it, then it is something to be ashamed of. There's nothing you can do, you're ashamed just the same, the way you're ashamed when you leave a spot on somebody's table. No matter if it's deserved or not, honorable or not, poverty stinks. Yes, stinks, stinks like a ground-floor room off an airshaft, or clothes that need changing. You smell it yourself, as though you were made of sewage. It can't be wiped away. It doesn't help to put on a new hat, any more than rinsing your mouth helps when you're belching your guts out. It's around you and on you and everyone who brushes up against you or looks at you knows it. I know the way women look down on you when you're down at heels. I know it's embarrassing for other people, but the hell with that, it's a lot more embarrassing when it's you. You can't get out of it, you can't get past it, the best thing to do is get plastered, and here" (he reached for his glass and drained it in a deliberately uncouth gulp) "here's the great social problem, here's why the 'lower classes' indulge in alcohol so much more - that problem that countesses and matrons in women's groups rack their brains over at tea. For those few minutes, those few hours, you forget you're an affront to other and to yourself. It's no great distinction to be seen in the company of someone dressed lie this, I know, but it's no fun for me either.”

“When a dozen men are harnessed to the same cart, one always pulls harder than the others, and when it's a question of promotion and seniority, it's easy to tread on the toes of the man ahead of you. At every word one utters one has to be on one's guard; one's never quite sure whether it isn't going to arouse the disapproval of the big bugs; there's always a storm in the offing.”

“Malice is always lucky.”