He was, like everyone of a strongly erotic disposition, twice as good, twice as much himself when he knew that women liked him, just as many actors find their most ardent vein when they sense that they have cast their spell over the audience, the breathing mass of spectators before them.

Religion did not play a central role in his education. Zweig had a warm relationship with Theodor Herzl the founder of Zionism whom he met when Herzl was still literary editor of the Neue Freie Presse then Vienna's main newspaper; Herzl accepted for publication some of Zweig's early essays. Biography
Zweig was the son of Moritz Zweig (1845–1926) a wealthy Jewish textile manufacturer and Ida Brettauer (1854–1938) from a Jewish banking family.

At the height of his literary career in the 1920s and 1930s he was one of the most famous writers in the world.