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Franz Kafka's Quotes

Franz Kafka profile photo

Born: 1970-01-01
Profession: Novelist
Nation: Austrian
Biography of Franz Kafka

See the gallery for quotes by Franz Kafka. You can to use those 8 images of quotes as a desktop wallpapers.
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In theory there is a possibility of perfect happiness: To believe in the indestructible element within one, and not to strive towards it.

Tags: Happiness, Perfect, Within

Evil is whatever distracts.

Tags: Evil, Whatever

Association with human beings lures one into self-observation.

Tags: Beings, Human

I have the true feeling of myself only when I am unbearably unhappy.

Tags: Feeling, True, Unhappy

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

Tags: Boring, Point, View

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.

Tags: Away, Liberty, Opinion

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.

Tags: Cannot, Life, Off

In the struggle between yourself and the world second the world.

Tags: Between, Struggle, Yourself

In the fight between you and the world, back the world.

Tags: Between, Fight

May I kiss you then? On this miserable paper? I might as well open the window and kiss the night air.

Tags: Kiss, May, Night

Not everyone can see the truth, but he can be it.

Tags: Everyone, Truth

One advantage in keeping a diary is that you become aware with reassuring clarity of the changes which you constantly suffer.

Tags: Become, Changes, Clarity

Religions get lost as people do.

Tags: Lost, Religions

The mediation by the serpent was necessary. Evil can seduce man, but cannot become man.

Tags: Become, Cannot, Evil

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

Tags: God, Him, Life

If I shall exist eternally, how shall I exist tomorrow?

Tags: Exist, Shall, Tomorrow

It is comforting to reflect that the disproportion of things in the world seems to be only arithmetical.

Tags: Comforting, Reflect, Seems

It is only our conception of time that makes us call the Last Judgement by this name. It is, in fact, a kind of martial law.

Tags: Fact, Law, Time

One must not cheat anyone, not even the world of its victory.

Tags: Anyone, Cheat, Victory

Writers speak stench.

Tags: Speak, Writers

He who seeks does not find, but he who does not seek will be found.

Tags: Found, Seek, Seeks

Hesitation before birth. If there is a transmigration of souls then I am not yet on the bottom rung. My life is a hesitation before birth.

Tags: Birth, Hesitation, Life

How can one take delight in the world unless one flees to it for refuge?

Tags: Delight, Refuge, Unless

In argument similes are like songs in love; they describe much, but prove nothing.

Tags: Argument, Love, Songs

My 'fear' is my substance, and probably the best part of me.

Tags: Best, Fear, Substance

My guiding principle is this: Guilt is never to be doubted.

Tags: Guiding, Guilt, Principle
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One tells as few lies as possible only by telling as few lies as possible, and not by having the least possible opportunity to do so.

Tags: Few, Lies, Possible

Suffering is the positive element in this world, indeed it is the only link between this world and the positive.

Tags: Between, Positive, Suffering

Test yourself on mankind. It is something that makes the doubter doubt, the believer believe.

Tags: Doubt, Makes, Yourself

The spirit becomes free only when it ceases to be a support.

Tags: Free, Spirit, Support

Tyranny or slavery, born of selfishness, are the two educational methods of parents; all gradations of tyranny or slavery.

Tags: Born, Parents, Tyranny

We all have wings, but they have not been of any avail to us and if we could tear them off, we would do so.

Tags: Off, Tear, Wings

Don't despair, not even over the fact that you don't despair.

Tags: Despair, Fact

Dread of night. Dread of not-night.

Tags: Dread, Night

Heaven is dumb, echoing only the dumb.

Tags: Dumb, Heaven

Hiding places there are innumerable, escape is only one, but possibilities of escape, again, are as many as hiding places.

Tags: Again, Escape, Places

Idleness is the beginning of all vice, the crown of all virtues.

Tags: Beginning, Vice, Virtues

If it had been possible to build the Tower of Babel without climbing it, it would have been permitted.

Tags: Build, Climbing, Possible

If there is a transmigration of souls then I am not yet on the bottom rung. My life is a hesitation before birth.

Tags: Birth, Hesitation, Life

In a certain sense the Good is comfortless.

Tags: Good, Sense

Martyrs do not underrate the body, they allow it to be elevated on the cross. In this they are at one with their antagonists.

Tags: Body, Cross, Martyrs

No sooner said than done - so acts your man of worth.

Tags: Done, Said, Worth

One of the first signs of the beginning of understanding is the wish to die.

Tags: Beginning, Die, Wish

The Bible is a sanctum; the world, sputum.

Tags: Bible

The fact that our task is exactly commensurate with our life gives it the appearance of being infinite.

Tags: Appearance, Fact, Life

The history of mankind is the instant between two strides taken by a traveler.

Tags: Between, History, Taken

Woman, or more precisely put, perhaps, marriage, is the representative of life with which you are meant to come to terms.

Tags: Life, Marriage, Woman

It is not necessary that you leave the house. Remain at your table and listen. Do not even listen, only wait. Do not even wait, be wholly still and alone. The world will present itself to you for its unmasking, it can do no other, in ecstasy it will writhe at your feet.

Tags: Alone, Leave, Wait

The relationship to one's fellow man is the relationship of prayer, the relationship to oneself is the relationship of striving; it is from prayer that one draws the strength for one's striving.

Tags: Prayer, Strength, Striving

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.

Tags: Alone, Love, Nature

There is nothing besides a spiritual world; what we call the world of the senses is the Evil in the spiritual world, and what we call Evil is only the necessity of a moment in our eternal evolution.

Tags: Evil, Moment, Spiritual

The experience of life consists of the experience which the spirit has of itself in matter and as matter, in mind and as mind, in emotion, as emotion, etc.

Tags: Experience, Life, Mind

The decisive moment in human evolution is perpetual. That is why the revolutionary spiritual movements that declare all former things worthless are in the right, for nothing has yet happened.

Tags: Human, Spiritual, Why

We are sinful not only because we have eaten of the Tree of Knowledge, but also because we have not yet eaten of the Tree of Life. The state in which we are is sinful, irrespective of guilt.

Tags: Knowledge, Life, State

How pathetically scanty my self-knowledge is compared with, say, my knowledge of my room. There is no such thing as observation of the inner world, as there is of the outer world.

Tags: Inner, Knowledge, Room

Let me remind you of the old maxim: people under suspicion are better moving than at rest, since at rest they may be sitting in the balance without knowing it, being weighed together with their sins.

Tags: May, Moving, Together

The indestructible is one: it is each individual human being and, at the same time, it is common to all, hence the incomparably indivisible union that exists between human beings.

Tags: Between, Human, Time

Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.

Tags: Anyone, Beauty, Old

By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired.

Tags: Believing, Create, Whatever

You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.

Tags: Choice, Leave, Wait

Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy.

Tags: Behind, Leaves, Revolution

My peers, lately, have found companionship through means of intoxication - it makes them sociable. I, however, cannot force myself to use drugs to cheat on my loneliness - it is all that I have - and when the drugs and alcohol dissipate, will be all that my peers have as well.

Tags: Alcohol, Cannot, Loneliness

Youth is happy because it has the ability to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.

Tags: Beauty, Happy, Old

A book must be the ax for the frozen sea within us.

Tags: Book, Sea, Within

I do not read advertisements. I would spend all of my time wanting things.

Tags: Read, Spend, Time

So long as you have food in your mouth, you have solved all questions for the time being.

Tags: Food, Questions, Time

A first sign of the beginning of understanding is the wish to die.

Tags: Beginning, Die, Wish

From a certain point onward there is no longer any turning back. That is the point that must be reached.

Tags: Longer, Point, Turning

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

Tags: Brainy, God, Nuts

By imposing too great a responsibility, or rather, all responsibility, on yourself, you crush yourself.

Tags: Great, Rather, Yourself

A book should serve as the ax for the frozen sea within us.

Tags: Book, Sea, Within

It is often safer to be in chains than to be free.

Tags: Chains, Free, Often

You can hold yourself back from the sufferings of the world, that is something you are free to do and it accords with your nature, but perhaps this very holding back is the one suffering you could avoid.

Tags: Free, Nature, Yourself

Start with what is right rather than what is acceptable.

Tags: Acceptable, Rather, Start

Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before.

Tags: Able

Believing in progress does not mean believing that any progress has yet been made.

Tags: Believing, Mean, Progress

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

Tags: Misfortune, Quixote

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

Tags: Fire, Old, Road

Self-control means wanting to be effective at some random point in the infinite radiations of my spiritual existence.

Tags: Means, Point, Spiritual

Always first draw fresh breath after outbursts of vanity and complacency.

Tags: After, Fresh, Vanity

There are only two things. Truth and lies. Truth is indivisible, hence it cannot recognize itself; anyone who wants to recognize it has to be a lie.

Tags: Cannot, Lie, Truth

We cannot turn the clock back nor can we undo the harm caused, but we have the power to determine the future and to ensure that what happened never happens again.

Tags: Cannot, Future, Power

Let no one think that flexibility and a predisposition to compromise is a sign of weakness or a sell-out.

Tags: Compromise, Sign, Weakness

In Africa today, we recognise that trade and investment, and not aid, are pillars of development.

Tags: Africa, Investment, Today

There is a need to take advantage of the change that has taken place in the Congo, however tragic that has been in its coming.

Tags: Change, Coming, Place

There are some who are scared by unity and by building a country on the basis of ideas.

Tags: Country, Ideas, Scared

You kept quiet... When these victims wanted your help to survive, you kept quiet.

Tags: Help, Quiet, Wanted

Such problems are not solved in one day but there is a great step toward peace and security in the region.

Tags: Great, Peace, Problems
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