Stefan Zweig Quotes

For the more a man limits himself, the nearer he is on the other hand to what is limitless.

No man can climb out beyond the limitations of his own character.

There's no one to stop you but yourself.

I made a conscious decision to live my life the best way I could and that meant to publicise myself as little as possible.

If you want to be great in what you're doing, you really need to limit yourself, so I consider my life as the life of a monk.

Self-denial does not belong to religion as characteristic of it; it belongs to human life; the lower nature must always be denied when you are trying to rise to a higher sphere.

Most prisons are of our own making. A man makes his own freedom, too.

Happie is hee that chastens himselfe.

The highest strength is acquired not in overcoming the world, but in overcoming one's self. Learn to be cruel to thyself, to withstand thy appetites, to bear thy sufferings, and thou shalt become free and able.

Teach him to deny himself.

The disciplined are free.

When a man has put a limit on what he will do, he has put a limit on what he can do.

The whole point of a sacrifice is that you give up something you never really wanted in the first place. People are doing it around you all the time. They give up their careers, say - or their beliefs - or sex.

Discipline means to prevent everything in your life from being filled up. Discipline means that somewhere you're not occupied, and certainly not preoccupied. In the spiritual life, discipline means to create that space in which something can happen that you hadn't planned or counted on.

The biggest human temptation is to settle for too little.

The discipline of desire is the background of character.

Patience is a virtue, and I'm learning patience. It's a tough lesson.

My limits will be better marked. Both the limits I will set, and my own limits.

Limitations can be hugely creative and hugely inspiring - so long as they are the ones you choose for yourself. I will not allow anyone to take anything off my palette, but if I do, then within that, I can be creative.

There is something good in men that really yearn for discipline.

I think we can all use a little more patience. I get a little impatient sometimes and I wish I didn't. I really need to be more patient.

The worst education which teaches self-denial, is better than the best which teaches everything else, and not that.

The only discipline that lasts is self-discipline.

I had to learn, really, how to rein in my energies and discipline myself. And I found it very very useful. I rebelled against it at first, but it's a good thing to have.

My ego every day is more and more polite. I tame it.