Franz Kafka Quotes About Literature

Quotes about: Literature

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

  Franz Kafka

  Wish To Die, Understanding, Literature

  Franz Kafka (1994). “The collected aphorisms”

• A book must be an ice-axe to break the seas frozen inside our soul.

  Franz Kafka

  Book, Reading, Ice

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

  Franz Kafka

  Funny, Fighting, Literature

• 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.

  Franz Kafka

  Reading, Ice, Sea

• 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

  Liberty, Atlas, Literature

  Franz Kafka (1991). “The Blue Octavo Notebooks”

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

  Franz Kafka

  Spiritual, Mean, Self

  Franz Kafka (1991). “The Blue Octavo Notebooks”

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

  Franz Kafka

  Vices, Crowns, Literature

  Franz Kafka (1991). “The Blue Octavo Notebooks”

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

  Franz Kafka

  Literature

  Franz Kafka (1991). “The Blue Octavo Notebooks”

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

  Franz Kafka

  Vanity, Literature, Complacency

  Franz Kafka (1991). “The Blue Octavo Notebooks”

• Evil is whatever distracts.

  Franz Kafka

  Evil, Literature, Madness

  Franz Kafka (1991). “The Blue Octavo Notebooks”

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

  Franz Kafka

  Travel, Taken, Two

  Franz Kafka (1991). “The Blue Octavo Notebooks”

• Association with human beings lures one into self-observation.

  Franz Kafka

  Self, Literature, Association

  Franz Kafka (1954). “Wedding preparations in the country: and other posthumous prose writings. With notes by Max Brod”

• All I am is literature, and I am not able or willing to be anything else.

  Franz Kafka

  Literature, Able, Willing

• 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

  War, Fate, Hands

  Franz Kafka (1979). “The Basic Kafka”, p.262, Simon and Schuster

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

  Franz Kafka

  Delight, Literature, World

  Franz Kafka, Malcolm Pasley (1973). “Shorter works [of] Franz Kafka”, Harvill Secker

• 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.

  Franz Kafka

  Cheating, Loneliness, Mean

• 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.

  Franz Kafka

  Lying, Two, Deceit

  Franz Kafka (1991). “The Blue Octavo Notebooks”

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

  Franz Kafka

  Tattoo, Food, Nuts

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

  Franz Kafka

  Fire, Literature, Want

  Franz Kafka (1991). “The Blue Octavo Notebooks”

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

  Franz Kafka

  Climbing, Hiking, Tower Of Babel

  Franz Kafka (2016). “Konundrum: Selected Prose of Franz Kafka”, p.354, Archipelago

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

  Franz Kafka

  Kissing, Night, Air

  Franz Kafka (2013). “Letters to Felice”, p.94, Schocken

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

  Franz Kafka

  Struggle, Literature, World

  "The Third Notebook," 8 Dec. 1917 (translation by Ernst Kaiser and Eithne Wilkins)

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

  Franz Kafka

  Freedom, Literature, Chains

  Franz Kafka (1983). “The Penguin complete novels of Franz Kafka”

• Nervous states of the worst sort control me without pause. Everything that is not literature bores me and I hate it. I lack all aptitude for family life except, at best, as an observer. I have no family feeling and visitors make me almost feel as though I were maliciously being attacked.

  Franz Kafka

  Hate, Feelings, Literature

• Religions get lost as people do.

  Franz Kafka

  People, Literature, Lost

  Franz Kafka (1991). “The Blue Octavo Notebooks”

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