Franz Kafka Quotes

One idiot is one idiot. Two idiots are two idiots. Ten thousand idiots are a political party. ~ Franz Kafka

Anyone who cannot come to terms with his life while he is alive needs one hand to ward off a little his despair over his fate ... but with his other hand he can note down what he sees among the ruins. ~ Franz Kafka

The thornbush is the old obstacle in the road. It must catch fire if you want to go further. ~ Franz Kafka

Anyway, it's best not to think about them, as if you do it makes the discussions with the other lawyers, all their advice and all that they do manage to achieve, seem so unpleasant and useless, I had that experience myself, just wanted to throw everything away and lay at home in bed and hear nothing more about it. But that, of course, would be the stupidest thing you could do, and you wouldn't be left in peace in bed for very long either. ~ Franz Kafka

Every thing that you love, you will eventually lose, but in the end, love will return in a different form. ~ Franz Kafka

If you sum up your judgment of me, the result you get is that, although you don't charge me with anything downright improper or wicked . . . , you do charge me with coldness, estrangements and ingratitude. And, what is more, you charge me with it in such a way as to make it seem my fault, as though I might have been able, with something like a touch on the steering wheel, to make everything quite different, while you aren't in the slightest to blame, unless it be for having been too good to me.
This, your usual way of representing it, I regard as accurate only in so far as I too believe you are entirely blameless in the matter of our estrangement. But I am equally entirely blameless. If I could get you to acknowledge this, then what would be possible is - not, I think, a new life, we are both much too old for that - but still, a kind of peace . . . ~ Franz Kafka

The Bible is a sanctum; the world, sputum. ~ Franz Kafka

Gregor's glance then turned to the window. The dreary weather - the
rain drops were falling audibly down on the metal window
ledge - made him quite melancholy. ~ Franz Kafka

Human nature, essentially changeable, unstable as the dust, can endure no restraint; if it binds itself it soon begins to tear madly at its bonds, until it renders everything asunder, the wall, and the bonds and its very self. ~ Kafka, Franz

I was wise, if you like, because I was prepared for death at any moment, but not because I had taken care of everything that was given to me to do, rather because I had done none of it and could not even hope ever to do any of it. ~ Franz Kafka

Calm - indeed the calmest - reflection might be better than the most confused decisions ~ Franz Kafka

Go on caring for me. ~ Franz Kafka

I can never tear myself open wide enough to people to reveal everything and so frighten them away. ~ Franz Kafka

I won't give up the diary again. I must hold on here, it is the only place I can. ~ Franz Kafka

And don't demand any sincerity from me, Milena. No one can demand it from me more than I myself and yet many things elude me, I'm sure, perhaps everything eludes me. ~ Franz Kafka

Incidentally, it's easy to write prescriptions, but difficult to come to an understanding with people. ~ Franz Kafka

There were dark hours, of course, such as came to everybody, in which you thought you had achieved nothing at all, in which it seemed to you that only the cases predestined from the start to seucceed came to a good end, which they would have reached in any event without your help, while every one of the others was doomed to fail in spite of all your manœuvres, all your exertions, all the illusory little victories on which you plumed yourself. ~ Franz Kafka

I would be speaking even with my silence, because at the moment I am nothing but a single word. ~ Franz Kafka

Kafka regarded the end of "The Metamorphosis"- its composition in interrupted by a business trip- as "unreadable." He also wrote in his diary that he found it"bad," but of course Kafka relished his failure. Failure is precisely what he expected and resolved to accomplish- and he hid behind it. ~ Franz Kafka

There is an infinite amount of hope in the universe ... but not for us. ~ Franz Kafka

We live in an age which is so possessed by demons, that soon we shall only be able to do goodness and justice in the deepest secrecy, as if it were a crime. ~ Franz Kafka

This noble body, equipped with everything necessary, almost to the point of bursting, also appeared to carry freedom around with it. ~ Franz Kafka

I'm doing badly, I'm doing well; whichever you prefer. ~ Franz Kafka

But Georg was not inclined to write of his commercial success to his friend, and were he to do so now, it would appear especially peculiar. So Georg always confined himself to relating the trivial matters that randomly arise from a disorganized memory on a reflective Sunday. ~ Franz Kafka

Don Quixote's misfortune is not his imagination, but Sancho Panza. ~ Franz Kafka

There is nothing bad to fear; once you have crossed that threshold, all is well. Another world, and you do not have to speak ~ Franz Kafka

So now you know what else existed in the world outside of you, before you knew only about yourself! ~ Franz Kafka

The difficulties (which other people surely find incredible) I have in speaking to people arise from the fact that my thinking, or rather the content of my consciousness, is entirely nebulous, that I remain undisturbed by this, so far as it concerns only myself, and am even occasionally self-satisfied; yet conversation with people demands pointedness, solidity, and sustained coherence, qualities not to be found in me. No one will want to lie in clouds of mist with me, and even if someone did, I couldn't expel the mist from my head; when two people come together it dissolves of itself and is nothing. ~ Franz Kafka

Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka ~ Franz Kafka

The worries that are the burden of which the privileged person makes an excuse in dealing with the oppressed person are in fact the worries about preserving his privileged condition. ~ Franz Kafka

And besides, can't I do it the way I always used to as a child in matters that were dangerous? I don't even need to go to the country myself, it isn't necessary. I'll send my clothed body. If it staggers out of the door of my room, the staggering will indicate not fear but its nothingness. Nor is it excitement if it stumbles on the stairs, if it travels in the country, sobbing as it goes, and there eats its supper in tears. For I myself am meanwhile lying in my bed, smoothly covered over with the yellow-brown blanket, exposed to the breeze that is wafted through the seldom-aired room. The carriages and people in the street move and walk hesitantly on shining ground, for I am still dreaming. ~ Franz Kafka

Way
as her hands reached to the back of his father's head and she begged him to spare Gregor's life. ~ Franz Kafka

It is not necessary to accept everything as true, one must only accept it as necessary.' 'A melancholy conclusion,' said K. 'It turns lying into a universal principle. ~ Franz Kafka

Our winters are very long here, very long and very monotonous. But we don't complain about it downstairs, we're shielded against the winter. Oh, spring does come eventually, and summer, and they last for a while, but now, looking back, spring and summer seem too short, as if they were not much more than a couple of days, and even on those days, no matter how lovely the day, it still snows occasionally. ~ Franz Kafka

Wherever I turn, the black wave rushes down on me. ~ Franz Kafka

All that you are seeking is also seeking you ~ Franz Kafka

It seemed remarkable to Gregor that above all the various noises of eating their chewing teeth could still be heard, as if they had wanted to show Gregor that you need teeth in order to eat and it was not possible to perform anything with jaws that are toothless however nice they might be. ~ Franz Kafka

Only here is suffering really suffering. Not in the way that those who suffer here are to be ennobled in some other world for their suffering, but that what passes for suffering in this world is, in another world, without any change and merely without its contrariety, bliss. ~ Franz Kafka

Logic may indeed be unshakeable, but it cannot withstand a man who is determined to live. ~ Franz Kafka

This perversion of the truth, familiar to the artist though it was, always unnerved him afresh and proved too much for him. What was a consequence of the premature ending of his fast was here presented as the cause of it! To fight against this lack of understanding, against a whole world of nonunderstanding, was impossible. ~ Franz Kafka

In her opinion her singing falls on deaf ears anyway; there is no lack of enthusiasm and applause, but she has long since given up hope of genuine understanding as she conceives it. ~ Franz Kafka

We are separated from God on two sides; the Fall separates us from Him, the Tree of Life separates Him from us. ~ Franz Kafka

My grandfather used to say: Life is astoundingly short. To me, looking back over it, life seems so foreshortened that I scarcely understand, for instance, how a young man can decide to ride over to the next village without being afraid that -not to mention accidents- even the span of a normal happy life may fall far short of the time needed for such a journey. ~ Franz Kafka

They were offered the choice between becoming kings or the couriers of kings. The way children would, they all wanted to be couriers. Therefore there are only couriers who hurry about the world, shouting to each other - since there are no kings - messages that have become meaningless. They would like to put an end to this miserable life of theirs but they dare not because of their oaths of service. ~ Franz Kafka

There is a down-and-outness under true knowledge and a childlike happy arising from it. ~ Franz Kafka

I answer one of your letters, then lie in bed in apparent calm, but my heart beats through my entire body and is conscious only of you. I belong to you; there is really no other way of expressing it, and that is not strong enough. ~ Franz Kafka

If you have food in your jaws you have solved all questions for the time being. ~ Franz Kafka

Sometimes I think I can expiate all my past and future sins through the aching of my bones. ~ Franz Kafka

I do not speak as I think, I do not think as I should, and so it all goes on in helpless darkness. ~ Franz Kafka

I mustn't look at you too much, or I won't be able to take my eyes off you at all. ~ Franz Kafka

Just because your doctor has a name for your condition, doesn't mean he knows what it is. ~ Franz Kafka

His escape is ultimately doomed by his utter devotion to his family, which never diminishes. The guilt brought on by Gregor's newfound inability to provide for his family- financially and emotionally- prevents him from attaining any sort of liberation. Perhaps recognizing this conundrum, Gregor chooses to remain an insect. ~ Franz Kafka

Life's splendor forever lies in wait about each one of us in all its fullness, but veiled from view, deep down, invisible, far off. It is there, though, not hostile, not reluctant, not deaf. If you summon it by the right word, by its right name, it will come. ~ Franz Kafka

I only fear danger where I want to fear it. ~ Franz Kafka

In the mountains our throats become free. It's a wonder we don't break into song. ~ Franz Kafka

All that matters is that the wound fit the arrow ~ Franz Kafka

Life is merely terrible; I feel it as few others do. Often - and in my inmost self perhaps all the time - I doubt whether I am a human being. ~ Franz Kafka

The Kafka paradox: art depends on truth, but truth, being indivisable, cannot know itself: to tell the truth is to lie. thus the writer is the truth, and yet when he speaks he lies. ~ Franz Kafka

Some books seem like a key to unfamiliar rooms in one's own castle. ~ Franz Kafka

The existence of the writer is an argument against the existence of the soul, for the soul has obviously taken flight from the real ego, but not improved itself, only become a writer. ~ Franz Kafka

Photography concentrates one's eye on the superficial. For that reason it obscures the hidden life which glimmers through the outlines of things like a play of light and shade. One can't catch that even with the sharpest lens. ~ Franz Kafka

Writing sustains me. But wouldn't it be better to say it sustains this kind of life? Which doesn't mean life is any better when I don't write. On the contrary, it is far worse, wholly unbearable, and inevitably ends in madness. This is, of course, only on the assumption that I am a writer even when I don't write - which is indeed the case; and a non-writing writer is, in fact, a monster courting insanity. ~ Franz Kafka

They linked arms with him in a way K. had never walked with anyone before ~ Franz Kafka

Officials are highly educated but one-sided; in his own department an official can grasp whole trains of thought from a single word, but let him have something from another department explained to him ... he won't understand a word of it. ~ Franz Kafka

He who does not answer the questions has passed the test. ~ Franz Kafka

One reads in order to ask questions ~ Franz Kafka

I can't think of anything to write about, I'm just walking around here between the lines, under the light of your eyes, in the breadth of your mouth as in a beautiful happy day, which remains beautiful and happy, even when the head is sick and tired. ~ Franz Kafka

I hate everything that does not relate to literature, conversations bore me (even when they relate to literature), to visit people bores me, the joys and sorrows of my relatives bore me to my soul. Conversation takes the importance, the seriousness, the truth, out of everything I think. ~ Franz Kafka

Write to me only once a week, so that your letter arrives on Sunday - for I cannot endure your daily letters, I am incapable of enduring them. For instance, I answer one of your letters, then lie in bed in apparent calm, but my heart beats through my entire body and is conscious only of you. I belong to you ~ Franz Kafka

It's characteristic of this judicial system that a man is condemned not only when he's innocent but also in ignorance. ~ Franz Kafka

I am a cage, in search of a bird. ~ Franz Kafka

One night a friend lent me a book of short stories by Franz Kafka. I went back to the pension where I was staying and began to read The Metamorphosis. The first line almost knocked me off the bed. I was so surprised. The first line reads, "As Gregor Samsa awoke that morning from uneasy dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect ... " When I read the line I thought to myself that I didn't know anyone was allowed to write things like that. If I had known, I would have started writing a long time ago. So I immediately started writing short stories. ~ Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Alone -- do you know what that means? ~ Franz Kafka

Even the merest gesture is holy if it is filled with faith. ~ Franz Kafka

I read the letter once, put it aside, and read it again; I pick up a file but am really only reading your letter; I am with the typist, to whom I am supposed to dictate, and again your letter slowly slides through my fingers and I have begun to draw it out of my pocket when people ask me something and I know perfectly well I should not be thinking of your letter now, yet that thought is all that occurs to me - but after all that I am as hungry as before, as restless as before, and once again the door starts swinging merrily, as though the man with the letter were about to appear again. That is what you call the "little pleasure" your letters give me. ~ Franz Kafka

It would be very unjust to say that you deserted me, but that I was deserted, and sometimes terribly so, is true. ~ Franz Kafka

In a way, I was safe writing ~ Franz Kafka

Atlas was permitted the opinion that he was at liberty, if he wished, to drop the Earth and creep away; but this opinion was all that he was permitted. ~ Franz Kafka

Everyone has his cross to bear. ~ Franz Kafka

Before the Law stands a doorkeeper on guard. To this doorkeeper there comes a man from the country who begs for admittance to the Law. But the doorkeeper says that he cannot admit the man at the moment. The man, on reflection, asks if he will be allowed, then, to enter later. 'It is possible,' answers the doorkeeper, 'but not at this moment.' Since the door leading into the Law stands open as usual and the doorkeeper steps to one side, the man bends down to peer through the entrance. When the doorkeeper sees that, he laughs and says: 'If you are so strongly tempted, try to get in without my permission. But note that I am powerful. And I am only the lowest doorkeeper. From hall to hall keepers stand at every door, one more powerful than the other. Even the third of these has an aspect that even I cannot bear to look at.' These are difficulties which the man from the country has not expected to meet, the Law, he thinks, should be accessible to every man and at all times, but when he looks more closely at the doorkeeper in his furred robe, with his huge pointed nose and long, thin, Tartar beard, he decides that he had better wait until he gets permission to enter. The doorkeeper gives him a stool and lets him sit down at the side of the door. There he sits waiting for days and years. He makes many attempts to be allowed in and wearies the doorkeeper with his importunity. The doorkeeper often engages him in brief conversation, asking him about his home and about other matters, bu ~ Franz Kafka

Nothing, nothing,
the whole long day, nothing. ~ Franz Kafka

Sensual love deceives one as to the nature of heavenly love; it could not do so alone, but since it unconsciously has the element of heavenly love within it, it can do so. ~ Franz Kafka

For now he must lie low and try, through patience and the greatest consideration, to help his family bear the inconvenience he was bound to cause them in his present condition. ~ Franz Kafka

The old incapacity. Interrupted my writing for barely ten days and already cast out. Once again prodigious efforts stand before me. You have to dive down, as it were, and sink more rapidly than that which sinks in advance of you. ~ Franz Kafka

Ours is a lost generation, it may be, but it is more blameless than those earlier generations. ~ Franz Kafka

You belong to me, even if I should never see you again. ~ Franz Kafka

Well, anyway- then came the sixth hour! It was not possible to grant every request to watch from close-up. In his wisdom, the commandant decreed that children should be given first priority. By virtue of my office, of courser, I was always nearby; often I was squatting there with a small child in either arm. How we drank in the transfigured look on the sufferer's face, how we bathed our cheeks in the warmth of that justice- achieved at long last and fading quickly. What times those were, my comrade! ~ Franz Kafka

I can't think of any greater happiness than to be with you all the time, without interruption, endlessly, even though I feel that here in this world there's no undisturbed place for our love, neither in the village nor anywhere else; and I dream of a grave, deep and narrow, where we could clasp each other in our arms as with clamps, and I would hide my face in you and you would hide your face in me, and nobody would ever see us any more. ~ Franz Kafka

God gives the nuts, but he does not crack them. ~ Franz Kafka

A stair not worn hollow by footsteps is, regarded from its own point of view, only a boring something made of wood. ~ Franz Kafka

Writing is a prayer. ~ Franz Kafka

At the same time all the houses round about promptly took part in this silence, and so did the darkness above them, reaching as far as the stars. And the footsteps of invisible passers-by, whose course I had no wish to guess at, the wind that kept on driving against the other side of the street, the gramophone singing behind closed windows in some room - they made themselves heard in this silence, as if they had owned it for ever and ever. ~ Franz Kafka

Anyone who renounces the world must love all men, for he renounces their world too. He thus begins to have some inkling of the true nature of man, which cannot but be loved, always assuming that one is its peer. ~ Franz Kafka

Writing is prayer. ~ Franz Kafka

In view of the fact that I surround myself with numbskulls now, I shall die among numbskulls, and on my deathbed shall be surrounded by numbskulls who will not understand what I am saying ... Whom am I sleeping with these days ? Franz Kafka. ~ Patricia Highsmith

I believe that we should only read those books that bite and sting us. If a book does not rouse us with a blow then why read it? ~ Franz Kafka

It is strange how little sharpsightedness women possess; they only notice whether they please, then whether they arouse pity, and finally, whether you look for compassion from them. That is all; come to think of it, it may even be enough, generally speaking. ~ Franz Kafka

Even years afterward I suffered from the tormenting fancy that the huge man, my father, the ultimate authority, would come almost for no reason at all and take me out of bed in the night and carry me out onto the pavlatche, and that consequently I meant absolutely nothing as far as he was concerned. ~ Franz Kafka

They no longer wanted to entice anyone; all they wanted was to catch a glimpse for as long as possible of the reflected glory in the great eyes of Odysseus ~ Franz Kafka

Utterance does not in principle mean a weakening of conviction
that would not be anything to be deplored
but a weakness of conviction. ~ Franz Kafka