Franz Quotes

It is the emotions to which one objects in Germany most of all. ~ Franz Grillparzer

What are the characteristics of today's world so that one may recognize it by them? It pays pensions and borrows money: credit and monuments. ~ Franz Grillparzer

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

Music escapes ideological characterization. Just as there are some social scientists who believe that what cannot be measured does not truly exist, and some psychologists used to believe that consciousness does not exist because it cannot be observed by instruments, so ideologists find anything that escapes their conceptual framework threatening - because ideologists want a simple principle, or a few simple principles, by which all things may be judged. When I was a student, I lived with a hard-line dialectical materialist who said that Schubert was a typical petit bourgeois pessimist, whose music would die out once objective causes for pessimism ceased to exist. But I suspect that even he was not entirely happy with this formulation. ~ Theodore Dalrymple

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

Turning popular opinion upside down does not make an original. ~ Franz Grillparzer

Franz shook his head. When a society is rich, its people don't need to work with their hands;they can devote themselves to activities of the spirit. We have more and more universities and more and more students. If students are going to earn degrees, they've got to come up with dissertation topics. And since dissertations can be written about everything under the sun, the number of topics is infinite. Sheets of paper covered with words pile up in archives sadder than cemeteries, because no one ever visits them, not even on All Souls' Day. Culture is perishing in overproduction, in an avalanche of words, in the madness of quantity. That's why one banned book in your former country means infinitely more than the billions of words spewed out by our universities. ~ Milan Kundera

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

You know the Dutch, they're always a bit funny ... some of them. ~ Franz Beckenbauer

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

The greatest misfortune of the wise man and the greatest unhappiness of the fool are based upon convention. ~ Franz Schubert

Party domination and State leadership are concepts incompatible with one another. ~ Franz Von Papen

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

Who claims that the heathen's view of the world is incorrect? Life gives you nothing! It is ruled by false gods! Nothing remains true to you but your own self; provided you remain true to it. ~ Franz Grillparzer

Is there a more mysterious idea than to imagine how nature is reflected in the eyes of animals? ~ Franz Marc

It is good insofar as it is not evil. ~ Franz Grillparzer

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

My compositions spring from my sorrows. Those that give the world the greatest delight were born of my deepest griefs. ~ Franz Schubert

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

You even called me stupid in your verse, and I'm almost agreeing, for where stupidity is involved, you are quite an expert, friend. ~ Franz Grillparzer

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

While people are fairly young and the musical composition of their lives is still in its opening bars, they can go about writing it together and sharing motifs (the way Tomas and Sabina exchanged the motif of the bowler hat), but if they meet when they are older, like Franz and Sabina, their musical compositions are more or less complete, and every motif, every object, every word means something different to each of them. ~ Milan Kundera

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

Following your own star means isolation, not knowing where to go, having to find out a completely new way for yourself instead of just going on the trodden path everybody else runs along. That's why there's always been a tendency in humans to project the uniqueness and the greatness of their own inner self onto outer personalities and become the servants, the devoted servants, admirers, and imitators of outer personalities. It is much easier to admire a great personality and become a pupil or follower of a guru or a religious prophet, or an admirer of a big, official personality - a President of the United States - or live your life for some military general whom you admire. That is much easier than following your own star. (p. 71) ~ Marie-Louise Von Franz

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

I conclude that the Wagnerian operas which are already in the repertoire, and other masterworks as well, stand in no further need of my services. ~ Franz Liszt

Gold is the gift of vanityand pride, Friendship and love offer flowers. ~ Franz Grillparzer

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

Inspiration is enough to give expression to the tone in singing, especially when the song is without words. ~ Franz Liszt

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

The music of the Gypsies belongs in the sphere of improvisation rather than in any other, without which it would have no power to exist. ~ Franz Liszt

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

We know there are poets who are chosen: by what or whom, we no more know than what lies beyond our final breath, or what caused a certain action which resulted in the fulfillment or the desecration and collapse of what we most cared for in life. ~ Franz Wright

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

As physics is a mental reconstruction of material processes, perhaps a physical reconstruction of psychic processes is possible in nature itself. ~ Marie-Louise Von Franz

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

Knowledge and wisdom must go hand in hand. The adept will therefore endeavour to get on in knowledge as well as in wisdom, for neither of the two must lag behind in development. ~ Franz Bardon

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

Be kind and generous to your fellows, but hard and relentless with yourself. ~ Franz Bardon

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

I consider myself fortunate that I've been able to find a character that people have responded to. ~ Dennis Franz

When Franz returned to himself, he seemed still to be in a dream. He thought himself in a sepulchre, into which a ray of sunlight in pity scarcely penetrated. He stretched forth his hand, and touched stone; he rose to his seat, and found himself lying on his bournous in a bed of dry heather, very soft and odoriferous. The vision had fled; and as if the statues had been but shadows from the tomb, they had vanished at his waking. He advanced several paces towards the point whence the light came, and to all the excitement of his dream succeeded the calmness of reality. He found that he was in a grotto, went towards the opening, and through a kind of fanlight saw a blue sea and an azure sky. The air and water were shining in the beams of the morning sun; on the shore the sailors were sitting, chatting and laughing; and at ten yards from them the boat was at anchor, undulating gracefully on the water. There for some time he enjoyed the fresh breeze which played on his brow, and listened to the dash of the waves on the beach, that left against the rocks a lace of foam as white as silver. He was for some time without reflection or thought for the divine charm which is in the things of nature, specially after a fantastic dream; then gradually this view of the outer world, so calm, so pure, so grand, reminded him of the illusiveness of his vision, and once more awakened memory. He recalled his arrival on the island, his presentation to a smuggler chief, a subterranean palace full of s ~ Alexandre Dumas

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

It's hard for me to grasp that I might somehow be my father's equal in any way. ~ Franz Wright

Let the will embrace the highest ideals freely and with infinite strength, but let action first take hold of what lies closest. ~ Franz Grillparzer

I'll miss the comments from the people on the street who love the show and who have felt its impact on the culture. I won't miss the shooting schedule, though! ~ Dennis Franz

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

ARCHDUKE FRANZ FERDINAND. 1863-1914. LLIE LIGHTLY UPON HIM EARTH, THO' HE / LAID MANY A HEAVY BURDEN UPON THEE. ~ John Green

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

When you choose to earn your living by helping people who are in emotional pain, you're also making a choice to carry them on your back for a while. To hell with all that talk of taking responsibility, assertiveness. That's crap. You're going to be coming up against helplessness every day of your lives. Your patients will imprint you, like goslings who latch on to the first creature they see when they stick their heads out of the egg shell. If you can't handle it, become and accountant. (82) When the Bough Breaks ~ Franz W. Kellermanns

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

How can you say that love is blind? Keener than a young eagle's is its sight. ~ Franz Grillparzer

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

Those who are born of grief give greatest delight to the outside world. ~ Franz Schubert

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

I would love to be able to write a tragedy in my imagination
it would turn into a masterpiece. ~ Franz Grillparzer

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

A good Cuban cigar closes the doors to the vulgarities of the world. ~ Franz Liszt

If only I could tell someone.
The humiliation I go through
when I think of my past
can only be described as grace.
We are created by being destroyed. ~ Franz Wright

This
final and long
longed-for job:
to be unhappy
without doing
evil. ~ Franz Wright

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

The noble woman is half a man, even a complete one. Only their imperfections make them women. ~ Franz Grillparzer

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

The most important thing however is the money. What use would it be to us, to have a a mighty stadium but a useless team, because we couldn't afford anything better? ~ Franz Beckenbauer

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