Franz Kafka Quotes - Page 10

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

  Franz Kafka

  Inspirational, Men, Done

  7 Copy quote

• The notion of the infinite expanse and copiousness of the cosmos is the result of the mixture, carried to the extreme limit, of laborious creation and free self-determination.

  Franz Kafka

  Determination, Self, Cosmos

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

  4 Copy quote

• There are questions we could not get past if we were not set free from them by our very nature.

  Franz Kafka

  Past, Ifs

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

  7 Copy quote

• I am away from home and must always write home, even if any home of mine has long since floated away into eternity.

  Franz Kafka

  Home, Writing, Long

  16 Copy quote

• 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.

  Franz Kafka

  Tree, Guilt, States

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

  10 Copy quote

• I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us.

  Franz Kafka

  Book, Writing, Thinking

  Franz Kafka (1979). “The Basic Kafka”, p.290, Simon and Schuster

  12 Copy quote

• Believing means liberating the indestructible element in oneself, or, more accurately, liberating oneself, or, more accurately, being indestructible, or, more accurately, being.

  Franz Kafka

  Believe, Mean, Liberty

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

  27 Copy quote

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

  Franz Kafka

  Comforting, World, Seems

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

  9 Copy quote

• Everything is deception: seeking the minimum of illusion, keeping within the ordinary limitations, seeking the maximum. In the first case one cheats the Good, by trying to make it too easy for oneself to get it, and the Evil by imposing all too unfavorable conditions of warfare on it. In the second case one cheats the Good by keeping as aloof from it as possible, and the Evil by hoping to make it powerless through intensifying it to the utmost.

  Franz Kafka

  Evil, Deception, Trying

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

  5 Copy quote

• It's impossible to defend oneself in the absence of goodwill

  Franz Kafka

  Impossible, Absence, Goodwill

  Franz Kafka (2008). “Amerika: The Missing Person: A New Translation, Based on the Restored Text”, p.166, Schocken

  7 Copy quote

• People who walk across dark bridges, past saints, with dim, small lights. Clouds which move across gray skies past churches with towers darkened in the dusk. One who leans against granite railing gazing into the evening waters, His hands resting on old stones.

  Franz Kafka

  Moving, Dark, Past

  6 Copy quote

• In Paradise, as always: that which causes the sin and that which recognizes it for what it is are one. The clear conscience is Evil, which is so entirely victorious that it does not any longer consider the leap from left to right necessary.

  Franz Kafka

  Evil, Doe, Paradise

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

  7 Copy quote

• So eager are our people to obliterate the present.

  Franz Kafka

  People

  Franz Kafka (1979). “The Basic Kafka”, p.78, Simon and Schuster

  12 Copy quote

• 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.

  Franz Kafka

  Luck, Pieces, Paradise

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

  18 Copy quote

• Writers speak stench.

  Franz Kafka

  Literature, Speak

  8 Copy quote

• 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”

  17 Copy quote

• Writing is a sweet, wonderful reward.

  Franz Kafka

  Sweet, Writing, Rewards

  15 Copy quote

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

  Franz Kafka

  Imagination, Misfortunes

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

  10 Copy quote

• The Diabolical sometimes assumes the aspect of the Good, or even embodies itself completely in its form. If this remains concealedfrom me, I am of course defeated, for this Good is more tempting than the genuine Good.

  Franz Kafka

  Seduction, Assuming, Sometimes

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

  17 Copy quote

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

  Franz Kafka

  Soul, Birth, Life Is

  Franz Kafka, Nahum Norbert Glatzer (1974). “I am a memory come alive: autobiographical writings”, Schocken

  7 Copy quote

• In a way, I was safe writing

  Franz Kafka

  Writing, Safe, Way

  4 Copy quote

• When one has once accepted and absorbed Evil, it no longer demands the unfitness of the means. The ulterior motives with which youabsorb and assimilate Evil are not your own but those of Evil.... Evil is whatever distracts. Evil knows of the Good, but Good does not know of Evil. Knowledge of oneself is something only Evil has. One means that Evil has is the dialogue.... One cannot pay Evil in installments--and one always keeps on trying to.

  Franz Kafka

  Mean, Evil, Trying

  11 Copy quote

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

  Franz Kafka

  Down And, True Knowledge, Childlike

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

  9 Copy quote

• 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

  13 Copy quote

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

  Franz Kafka

  Men, Evil, Literature

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

  61 Copy quote

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