Franz Kafka Quotes - Page 14

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• They did not know what we can now guess at, contemplating the course of history: that change begins in the soul before it appears in ordinary existence.

  Franz Kafka

  Soul, Shows, Contemplating

  "The Penguin complete short stories of Franz Kafka".

  11 Copy quote

• I won't give up the diary again. I must hold on here, it is the only place I can.

  Franz Kafka

  Giving Up, Diaries, I Won't Give Up

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

  4 Copy quote

• One of the first signs of the beginning of understanding is the wish to die. This life appears unbearable, another unattainable. One is no longer ashamed of wanting to die; one asks to be moved from the old cell, which one hates, to a new one, which one willl only in time come to hate. In this there is also a residue of belief that during the move the master will chance to come along the corridor, look at the prisoner and say: "This man is not to be locked up again, He is to come with me.

  Franz Kafka

  Hate, Moving, Men

  6 Copy quote

• 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.

  Franz Kafka

  Perception, Way, Doe

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

  5 Copy quote

• My job is unbearable to me because it conflicts with my only desire and my only calling, which is literature. Since I am nothing but literature and can and want to be nothing else, my job will never take possession of me, it may, however, shatter me completely, and this is by no means a remote possibility.

  Franz Kafka

  Jobs, Mean, Desire

  Franz Kafka (1948). “The diaries of Franz Kafka”, Schocken

  4 Copy quote

• There can be knowledge of the diabolical, but no belief in it, for more of the diabolical than there is does not exist.

  Franz Kafka

  Doe, Belief, Diabolical

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

  7 Copy quote

• For we are like tree trunks in the snow. In appearance they lie smoothly and a little push should be enough to set them rolling. No, it can't be done, for they are firmly wedded to the ground. But see, even that is only appearance.

  Franz Kafka

  Lying, Snow, Tree

  Franz Kafka (2012). “The Complete Stories”, p.474, Schocken

  9 Copy quote

• Anyone who loves his neighbor within the limits of the world is doing no more and no less injustice than someone who loves himself within the limits of the world.

  Franz Kafka

  Love, World, Limits

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

  5 Copy quote

• The various forms of despair at the various stations on the road.

  Franz Kafka

  Travel, Despair, Form

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

  5 Copy quote

• I believe that we should read only those books that bite and sting us. If a book we are reading does not rouse us with a blow to the head, then why read it?

  Franz Kafka

  Believe, Book, Blow

  "I am a memory come alive: autobiographical writings".

  5 Copy quote

• Why do we complain about the Fall? It is not on its account that we were expelled from Paradise, but on account of the Tree of Life, lest we might eat of it.

  Franz Kafka

  Fall, Tree, Complaining

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

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  Franz Kafka

  Life, Spiritual, Mind

  11 Copy quote

• In theory there is a possibility of perfect happiness: To believe in the indestructible element within one, and not to strive towards it.

  Franz Kafka

  Happiness, Laughter, Believe

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

  8 Copy quote

• You're not cross with me, though?" he said. She pulled her hand away and answered, "No, no, I'm never cross with anyone.

  Franz Kafka

  Hands, Crosses, Said

  Franz Kafka (2017). “The Trial / Der Proceß: Bilingual Edition: English - German / Zweisprachige Ausgabe: Englisch - Deutsch”, p.19, BookRix

  4 Copy quote

• It requires enormous presence of mind or rather quickness of wit, when opening your eyes to seize hold as it were of everything in the room at exactly the same place where you had let it go on the previous evening. That is why the moment of waking up was the riskiest moment of the day. Once that was well over without deflecting you from your orbit, you could take heart of grace for the rest of the day.

  Franz Kafka

  Heart, Eye, Presence Of Mind

  Franz Kafka, Stanley Corngold (1981). “The Metamorphosis”, Bantam Classics

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• The delights of this life are not its own, but our fear of the ascent into a higher life; the torments of this life are not its own, but our self-torment because of that fear.

  Franz Kafka

  Life, Fear, Self

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

  7 Copy quote

• If education tries to make other persons out of us than we essentially are, deeper inside, it stultifies, and reproach matters.

  Franz Kafka

  Trying, Matter, Deeper

  17 Copy quote

• Utterance does not in principle mean a weakening of conviction--that would not be anything to be deplored--but a weakness of conviction.

  Franz Kafka

  Mean, Weakness, Principles

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

  7 Copy quote

• If the book we are reading does not wake us, as with a fist hammering on our skull, why then do we read it?

  Franz Kafka

  Book, Reading, Skulls

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• If all responsibility is imposed on you, then you may want to exploit the moment and want to be overwhelmed by the responsibility;yet if you try, you will notice that nothing was imposed on you, but that you are yourself this responsibility.

  Franz Kafka

  Responsibility, Self, Trying

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

  4 Copy quote

• The founder brought the laws from the lawgiver; the faithful are meant to announce the laws to the lawgiver.

  Franz Kafka

  God, Law, Faithful

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

  4 Copy quote

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

  Franz Kafka

  Book, Sea, Library

  Letter to Oskar Pollak, 27 Jan. 1904

  8 Copy quote

• there is nothing bad to fear; once you have crossed that threshold, all is well. Another world, and you do not have to speak

  Franz Kafka

  World, Speak, Threshold

  5 Copy quote

• Knowledge we have. Anyone who strives for it with particular intensity is suspect of striving against it.

  Franz Kafka

  Knowledge, Strive, Intensity

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

  10 Copy quote

• Was he an animal, that music could move him so? He felt as if the way to the unknown nourishment he longed for were coming to light.

  Franz Kafka

  Moving, Animal, Light

  Franz Kafka (1972). “The Metamorphosis”

  4 Copy quote

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