Franz Kafka Quotes: Franz Kafka is one of the leading authors of 20th century and modern German literature.
Here we listed Franz Kafka Quotes about love, life, letters to milena and more
‘“Better to have, and not need, than to need, and not have.”’
‘“We were expelled from Paradise, but it was not destroyed. The expulsion from Paradise was in one sense a piece of good fortune, for if we had not been expelled, Paradise would have had to be destroyed.”’
‘“I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself.”’
‘“Suffering is the positive element in this world, indeed it is the only link between this world and the positive.”’
‘ “I have spent all my life resisting the desire to end it.”’
‘“One idiot is one idiot. Two idiots are two idiots. Ten thousand idiots are a political party.”’
‘“Slept, awoke, slept, awoke, miserable life.”’
‘“If the book we are reading does not wake us, as with a fist hammering on our skull, why then do we read it?”’
‘“Follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.”’
‘“To write prescriptions is easy, but to come to an understanding with people is hard.”’
‘“A non-writing writer is a monster courting insanity.”’
‘“Simply wait, be quiet, still The world will freely offer itself to you.”’
‘ “Now I can look at you in peace; I don’t eat you any more.”’
‘“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.”’
‘ “The meaning of life is that it stops.”’
‘“Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy.”’
‘“Every thing that you love, you will eventually lose, but in the end, love will return in a different form.”’
‘“The man in ecstasy and the man drowning: both raise their arms.”’
‘“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.”’
‘“If you become involved with me, you will be throwing yourself into the abyss.”’
‘“Most men are not wicked. They are sleepwalkers, not evil evildoers.”’
‘“I need solitude for my writing; not ‘like a hermit’ – that wouldn’t be enough – but like a dead man.”’
‘“I am a cage, in search of a bird.”’
‘“In man’s struggle against the world, bet on the world.”’
‘“Youth is happy because it has the capacity to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.”’
‘“First impressions are always unreliable.”’
‘“There art two cardinal sins from which all others spring: Impatience and Laziness.”’
‘“He who seeks does not find, but he who does not seek will be found.”’
‘“Evil is whatever distracts.”’
‘“So long as you have food in your mouth, you have solved all questions for the time being.”’
‘“Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.”’
‘“What if I slept a little more and forgot about all this nonsense.”’
‘“A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us.”’
‘Start with what is right rather than what is acceptable.’
‘“I am free and that is why I am lost.”’
‘“Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before.”’
‘“Paths are made by walking.”’
‘“Some books seem like a key to unfamiliar rooms in one’s own castle.”’
‘”I no longer know If I wish to drown myself in love, vodka or the sea.”‘
‘“In the fight between you and the world, back the world.”’
‘“I have the true feeling of myself only when I am unbearably unhappy.”’
‘“A book should serve as an axe to the ice inside us.”’
‘ “Anybody who preserves the ability to recognize beauty will never get old.”’
‘“A first sign of the beginning of understanding is the wish to die.”’
‘“I do not see the world at all; I invent it.”’
‘“God gives the nuts, but he does not crack them.”’
‘“It isn’t necessary that you leave home. Sit at your desk and listen. Don’t even listen, just wait. Don’t wait, be still and alone. The whole world will offer itself to you.”’
‘ “Love is a drama of contradictions.”’
‘“He is terribly afraid of dying because he hasn’t yet lived.”’
‘ “From a certain point onward there is no longer any turning back. That is the point that must be reached.”’
‘You are at once both the quiet and the confusion of my heart.”’
‘“I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us.”’
‘“To every instant there is a correspondence in something outside time. This world here and now cannot be followed by a Beyond, for the Beyond is eternal, hence it cannot be in temporal contact with this world here and now.”’
‘“I usually solve problems by letting them devour me.”’
‘ “This noble body, equipped with everything necessary, almost to the point of bursting, also appeared to carry freedom around with it.”’
‘“Do not waste your time looking for an obstacle – maybe there is none.”’
‘“For everything outside the phenomenal world, language can only be used allusively, but never even approximately in a comparative way, since, corresponding as it does to the phenomenal world, it is concerned only with property and its relations.”’
‘“I can love only what I can place so high above me that I cannot reach it.”’
‘“The spirit becomes free only when it ceases to be a support.”’
‘“A lawyer is a person who writes a 10,000-word document and calls it a “brief.””’
‘“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.”’
‘“I’m tired, can’t think of anything and want only to lay my face in your lap, feel your hand on my head and remain like that through all eternity.”’
‘“Either the world is so tiny or we are enormous; in either case, we fill it completely.”’
‘There are times when I am convinced I am unfit for any human relationship.”’
‘“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?”’
‘“Isolation is a way to know ourselves.”’
‘“Love is, that you are the knife which I plunge into myself.”’
‘“All that you are seeking is also seeking you.”’
‘“Writing is utter solitude, the descent into the cold abyss of oneself.”’
‘“I never wish to be easily defined.”’
‘“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.”’
‘“If you find someone who makes you smile, who checks up on you often to see if you’re okay. Who watches out or you and wants the best for you. Who loves and respects you. Don’t let them go. People like that are hard to find.”’
‘“There are questions we could not get past if we were not set free from them by our very nature.”’
‘“Start with what is right rather than what is acceptable.”’
‘“Tyranny or slavery, born of selfishness, are the two educational methods of parents; all gradations of tyranny or slavery.”’
‘“If the literature we are reading does not wake us, why then do we read it? A literary work must be an ice-axe to break the sea frozen inside us.”’
‘“The dream reveals the reality which conception lags behind. That is the horror of life-the terror of art.”’
‘“I miss you deeply, unfathomably, senselessly, terribly.”’
‘“I am a retiring, silent, unsociable, and discontent person.”’
‘“Death confronts us not unlike the historical battle scene that hangs on the wall of the classroom. It is our task to obscure or quite obliterate the picture by our deeds while we are still in this world.”’
‘“My ‘fear’ is my substance, and probably the best part of me.”’
‘“The mediation by the serpent was necessary. Evil can seduce man, but cannot become man.”’
‘“The door could not be heard slamming; they had probably left it open, as is the custom in homes where a great misfortune has occurred.”’
‘“Not everyone can see the truth, but he can be it.”’
‘“No sooner said than done – so acts your man of worth.”’
‘“You are so vulnerably haunting. Your eeriness is terrifyingly irresistible.”’
‘“Work as joy, inaccessible to the psychologists.”’
‘ “Picasso only registers the deformities which have not yet penetrated our consciousness. Art is a mirror which goes ‘fast’ like a watch – sometimes.”’
‘“It is often safer to be in chains than to be free.”’
‘“Logic may indeed be unshakeable, but it cannot withstand a man who is determined to live.”’
‘“One day, a leopard stalked into the synagogue, roaring and lashing its tail. Three weeks later, it had become part of the liturgy.”’
‘“Hold fast to the diary from today on! Write regularly! Don’t surrender! Even if no salvation should come, I want to be worthy of it every moment.”’
‘“The right understanding of any matter and a misunderstanding of the same matter do not wholly exclude each other.”’
‘“Believing in progress does not mean believing that any progress has yet been made.”’
‘“Last night I dreamed about you. What happened in detail I can hardly remember, all I know is that we kept merging into one another. I was you, you were me. Finally you somehow caught fire.”’
‘“No one can crave what truly harms him.”’
‘“I am too tired, I must try to rest and sleep, otherwise I am lost in every respect. What an effort to keep alive! Erecting a monument does not require an expenditure of so much strength.”’
‘“We are separated from God on two sides; the Fall separates us from Him, the Tree of Life separates Him from us.”’
‘“Some deny the existence of misery by pointing to the sun; he denies the existence of the sun by pointing to misery.”’
‘“The thornbush is the old obstacle in the road. It must catch fire if you want to go further.”’
‘“It’s only because of their stupidity that they’re able to be so sure of themselves.”’
‘“Art is for the artist is only suffering through which he releases himself for further suffering.”’
‘“I’m doing badly, I’m doing well; whichever you prefer.”’
‘“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.”’
‘“You misinterpret everything, even the silence.”’
‘“In a certain sense the Good is comfortless.”’
‘ “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.”’
‘“That’s how it will be, except that in reality, both today and later, one will stand there with a palpable body and a real head, a real forehead, that is, for smiting on with one’s hand.”’
‘“You belong to me, even if I should never see you again.”’
‘“The truth is always an abyss.”’
‘“Don’t be too optimistic, the light at the end of the tunnel might be a train.”’
‘“The more horses you yoke the quicker everything will go – not the rending of the block from its foundation, which is impossible, but the snapping of the traces and with that the gay and empty journey.”’
‘“The purpose of a story is to be an axe that breaks up the ice within us.”’
‘“Dread of night. Dread of not-night.”’
‘“If I shall exist eternally, how shall I exist tomorrow?”’
‘“The Messiah will only come when he is no longer needed.”’
‘“Ours is a lost generation, it may be, but it is more blameless than those earlier generations.”’
‘“Only the moment counts. It determines life.”’
‘“In the struggle between yourself and the world, hold the world’s coat.”
‘“Writing is a deeper sleep than death. Just as one wouldn’t pull a corpse from its grave, I can’t be dragged from my desk at night.”’
‘“Religions get lost as people do.”’
‘“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.”’
‘“Oh, plenty of hope, an infinite amount of hope – but not for us.”’
‘“I do not speak as I think, I do not think as I should, and so it all goes on in helpless darkness.”’
‘“You see, I have only such a fugitive awareness of things around me that I always feel they were once real and are now fleeting away.”’
‘“All I am is literature, and I am not able or willing to be anything else.”’
‘“Don’t despair, not even over the fact that you don’t despair.”’
‘“The cruelty of death lies in the fact that it brings the real sorrow of the end, but not the end. The greatest cruelty of death: an apparent end causes a real sorrow. Our salvation is death, but not this one.”’
‘“Should I be grateful or should I curse the fact that despite all misfortune I can still feel love, an unearthly love but still for earthly objects.”’
‘“Writing is prayer.”’
‘“There is a goal but no way; what we call the way is mere wavering.”’
‘ “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.”’
‘“What is meant by its nature for the highest and the best, spreads among the lowly people.”’
‘“The limited circle is pure.”’
‘“Man cannot live without a continuous confidence in something indestructible within himself.”’
‘“You can choose to be free, but it’s last decision you’ll ever make.”’
‘“Every thing you love is very likely to be lost, but in the end, love will return in a different way.”’
‘“Association with human beings lures one into self-observation.”’
‘“A man of action forced into a state of thought is unhappy until he can get out of it.”’
‘“I am away from home and must always write home, even if any home of mine has long since floated away into eternity.”’
‘“You are the knife I turn inside myself; that is love. That, my dear, is love.”’
‘“Every word first looks around in every direction before letting itself be written down by me.”’
‘“It follows, perhaps, that we are now both married, you in Vienna, I to my fear in Prague, and that not only you, but I too, tug in vain at our marriage.”’
‘“Everyone carries a room about inside him.”’
‘“What do I have in common with Jews? I don’t even have anything in common with myself.”’
‘“I like to make use of what I know.”’
‘“I can once more carry on a conversation with myself, and don’t stare so into complete emptiness. Only in this way is there any possibility of improvement for me.”’
‘“The ulterior motives with which you absorb and assimilate Evil are not your own but those of Evil.”’
‘ “But questions that don’t answer themselves at the very moment of their asking are never answered.”’
‘“The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired. Only after death, only in solitude, does a man’s true nature emerge. In death, as on the chimney sweep’s Saturday night, the soot gets washed from his body.”’
‘“The history of mankind is the instant between two strides taken by a traveler.”’
‘ “Asking questions were the most important thing.”’
‘“Just think how many thoughts a blanket smothers while one lies alone in bed, and how many unhappy dreams it keeps warm.”’
‘“Always first draw fresh breath after outbursts of vanity and complacency.”’
‘“My guiding principle is this: Guilt is never to be doubted.”’
‘“If something good has lost its way into you, it will make its escape overnight. I know you.”’
‘“Anyone who believes cannot experience miracles. By day one does not see any stars. Anyone who does miracles says: I cannot let goof the earth.”’
‘“Self-control means wanting to be effective at some random point in the infinite radiations of my spiritual existence.”’
‘“Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.”’
‘“You too have weapons.”’
‘“But what shall I do when instead of a heart this fear is beating in my body?”’
‘“My life was sweeter than other people’s and my death will be more terrible by the same degree.”’
‘“The tremendous world I have inside my head. But how free myself and free it without being torn to pieces. And a thousand times rather be torn to pieces than retain it in me or bury it. That, indeed, is why I am here, that is quite clear to me.”’
‘“Idleness is the beginning of all vice, the crown of all virtues.”’
‘“Woman, or more precisely put, perhaps, marriage, is the representative of life with which you are meant to come to terms.”’
‘“It would be very unjust to say that you deserted me, but that I was deserted, and sometimes terribly so, is true.”’
‘“I can’t feel a thing; All mournful petal storms are dancing inside the very private spring of my head.”’
‘“Just because your doctor has a name for your condition, doesn’t mean he knows what it is.”’
‘“In me, by myself, without human relationship, there are no visible lies. The limited circle is pure.”’
‘“Hiding places there are innumerable, escape is only one, but possibilities of escape, again, are as many as hiding places.”’
‘“Peaceful moon. I consist only of bones.”’
‘“His numerous legs, pitifully thin in comparison to the rest of his circumference, flickered helplessly before his eyes.”’
‘“This morning, for the first time in a long time, the joy again of imagining a knife twisted in my heart.”’
‘“The state we find ourselves in is sinful quite independent of guilt.”’
‘“Written kisses don’t reach their destination, rather they are drunk on the way by the ghosts.”’
‘“The fact that no one knows where I am is my only happiness. If only I could prolong this forever! It would be far more just than death. I am empty and futile in every corner of my being, even in my unhappiness.”’
‘“If it had been possible to build the Tower of Babel without climbing it, it would have been permitted.”’
‘“We are instructed to do the negative; the positive is already within us.”’
‘“Loneliness is my only goal, my greatest temptation, my possibility and, if you can say that I have ‘organized’ my life, then it has been organized to make loneliness feel good.”’
‘“Illusions are more common than changes in fortune.”’
‘“Knowledge we have. Anyone who strives for it with particular intensity is suspect of striving against it.”’
‘“Being alone has a power over me that never fails. My interior dissolves and is ready to release what lies deeper.”’
‘“From outside one will always triumphantly impress theories upon the world and then fall straight into the ditch one has dug, but only from inside will one keep oneself and the world quiet and true.”’
‘“One must fight to get to the top, especially if one starts at the bottom.”’
‘“Humility provides everyone, even him who despairs in solitude, with the strongest relationship to his fellow man.”’
‘“Everything you say is boring and incomprehensible, but that alone doesn’t make it true.”’
‘“I mustn’t look at you too much, or I won’t be able to take my eyes off you at all.”’
‘“If what was supposed to have been destroyed in Paradise was destructible, then it was not decisive; but if it was indestructible, then we are living in a false belief.”’
‘“A stair not worn hollow by footsteps is, regarded from its own point of view, only a boring something made of wood.”’
‘“I feel an unhappiness which almost dismembers me, and at the same time am convinced of its necessity.”’
‘“Whatever he may seem to us, he is yet a servant of the Law; that is, he belongs to the Law and as such is set beyond human judgment.”’
‘“In theory there is a possibility of perfect happiness: To believe in the indestructible element within one, and not to strive towards it.”’
‘“To animalise is humane, to humanise is animal.”’
‘“By your side I’m most quiet and most unquiet, most inhibited and most free.”’
‘“I never imagined that so many days would ultimately make such a small life.”’
‘“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.”’
‘“I am forever chained to myself; that’s what I am, and that’s what I must try to live with.”’
‘“Anything that has real and lasting value is always a gift from within.”’
‘“I only fear danger where I want to fear it.”’
‘“If there is a transmigration of souls then I am not yet on the bottom rung. My life is a hesitation before birth.”’
‘“Let the future sleep for now, as it deserves. If you wake it too early, you get a groggy present.”’
