Franz Kafka Quotes - Page 13

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• 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

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

  Franz Kafka

  Giving, Tasks, Literature

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

  7 Copy quote

• There's no quiet place here on earth for our love, not in the village and not anywhere else, so I picture a grave, deep and narrow, in which we embrace as if clamped together, I bury my face against you, you yours against me, and no one will ever see us.

  Franz Kafka

  Love, Together, Village

  "The Castle". Book by Franz Kafka, 1926.

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• We were created in order to live in Paradise, and Paradise was ordained to serve us.
  What was ordained for us has been changed; it is not said
  that this has also happened with what was ordained for Paradise.

  Franz Kafka

  Fate, Order, Religion

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

  8 Copy quote

• Towards the avoidance of a piece of verbal confusion: What is intended to be actively destroyed must first of all have been firmly grasped; what crumbles away crumbles away, but cannot be destroyed.

  Franz Kafka

  Confusion, Pieces, Firsts

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

  9 Copy quote

• 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.

  Franz Kafka

  Night, Men, Solitude

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• Only our concept of time makes it possible for us to speak of the Day of Judgment by that name in reality it is a summary court in perpetual session.

  Franz Kafka

  Reality, Names, Speak

  "Reflections on Sin, Pain, Hope, and the True Way" (1917 - 1920)

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• There are two main human sins from which all the others derive: impatience and indolence. It was because of impatience that they were expelled from Paradise; it is because of indolence that they do not return. Yet perhaps there is only one major sin: impatience. Because of impatience they were expelled, because of impatience they do not return.

  Franz Kafka

  Two, Paradise, Return

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

  25 Copy quote

• What is meant by its nature for the highest and the best, spreads among the lowly people.

  Franz Kafka

  People, Spread, Highest

  "Franz Kafka: A Biography". Book by Max Brod, transl. by translated by G. Humphreys Roberts and Richard Winston, p. 74, 1960.

  8 Copy quote

• Heaven is dumb, echoing only the dumb.

  Franz Kafka

  Heaven, Dumb

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

  4 Copy quote

• The state we find ourselves in is sinful quite independent of guilt.

  Franz Kafka

  Independent, Guilt, States

  7 Copy quote

• There is a goal but no way; what we call the way is mere wavering.

  Franz Kafka

  Goal, Wavering, Way

  4 Copy quote

• What's happened to me,' he thought. It was no dream.

  Franz Kafka

  Dream, Metamorphosis, Surprise

  Franz Kafka (2016). “Collected Works (Complete Editions: The Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony, The Trial, ...)”, p.2, Franz Kafka

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• Each of us has his own way of emerging from the underworld, mine is by writing. That's why the only way I can keep going, if at all, is by writing, not through rest and sleep. I am far more likely to achieve peace of mind through writing than the capacity to write through peace.

  Franz Kafka

  Writing, Sleep, Mind

  Franz Kafka (2013). “Letters to Felice”, p.593, Schocken

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• The fact that there is nothing but a spiritual world deprives us of hope and gives us certainty.

  Franz Kafka

  Spiritual, Giving, World

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

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• 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.

  Franz Kafka

  Strength, Prayer, Men

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

  7 Copy quote

• It is strange how little sharpsightedness women possess; they only notice whether they please, then whether they arouse pity, and finally, whether you look for compassion from them. That is all; come to think of it, it may even be enough, generally speaking.

  Franz Kafka

  Women, Compassion, Thinking

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• And I leave my post of observation and find I have had enough of this outside life; I feel that there is nothing more that I can learn here, either now or at any time. And I long to say a last goodbye to everything up here, to go down into my burrow never to return again, let things take their course, and not try to retard them with my profitless vigils.

  Franz Kafka

  Goodbye, Long, Trying

  Franz Kafka (1979). “The Basic Kafka”, p.102, Simon and Schuster

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• If this is what you came for, then I didn't send for you. Kafka (note to himself in journal)

  Franz Kafka

  Notes, Journal, Ifs

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• 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.

  Franz Kafka

  Paradise, Belief, Has Beens

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

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• Every word first looks around in every direction before letting itself be written down by me.

  Franz Kafka

  Looks, Firsts, Written

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• Sometimes I'd like to stuff all Jews (myself included) into the drawer of a laundry basket. then open it to see if they've suffocated

  Franz Kafka

  Stuff, Sometimes, Laundry

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• 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

  Writing, Mean, Insanity

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• The ulterior motives with which you absorb and assimilate Evil are not your own but those of Evil.
  The animal wrests the whip from its master and whips itself in order to become master, not knowing that this is only a fantasy produced by a new knot in the master's whiplash.

  Franz Kafka

  Animal, Order, Knowing

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

  55 Copy quote

• 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

  Worry, Facts, Privilege

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

  11 Copy quote

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