Franz Kafka Quotes - Page 17

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• I hate everything that does not relate to literature, conversations bore me (even if they relate to literature), to visit people bores me, the sorrows and joys of my relatives bore me to the very soul. Conversation takes the importance, the seriousness, the truth, out of everything I think.

  Franz Kafka

  Hate, Thinking, People

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

  6 Copy quote

• It's sometimes quite astonishing that a single, average life is enough to encompass so much that it's at all possible ever to have any success in one's work here.

  Franz Kafka

  Average, Sometimes, Life Is

  Franz Kafka (2016). “Collected Works (Complete Editions: The Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony, The Trial, ...)”, p.175, Franz Kafka

  4 Copy quote

• My doubts stand in a circle around every word, I see them before I see the word, but what then! I do not see the word at all, I invent it.

  Franz Kafka

  Circles, Doubt

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

  4 Copy quote

• People keep themselves at a tolerable height above an infernal abyss toward which they gravitate only by putting out all their strength and lovingly helping one another. They are tied together by ropes, and it's bad enough when the ropes around an individual loosen and he drops somewhat lower than the others into empty space; ghastly when the ropes break and he falls. That's why we should cling to the others.

  Franz Kafka

  Fall, Space, People

  Franz Kafka (2013). “Letters to Friends, Family, and Editors”, Schocken

  8 Copy quote

• The existence of the writer is an argument against the existence of the soul, for the soul has obviously taken flight from the real ego, but not improved itself, only become a writer.

  Franz Kafka

  Real, Taken, Ego

  Franz Kafka (2013). “Letters to Friends, Family, and Editors”, p.455, Schocken

  4 Copy quote

• Art flies around truth, but with the definite intention of not getting burnt. Its capacity lies in finding in the dark void a place where the beam of light can be intensely caught, without this having been perceptible before.

  Franz Kafka

  Art, Lying, Dark

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

  5 Copy quote

• Two tasks at the beginning of your life: to narrow your orbit more and more, and ever and again to check whether you are not in hiding somewhere outside your orbit.

  Franz Kafka

  Two, Orbit, Tasks

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

  4 Copy quote

• The old incapacity. Interrupted my writing for barely ten days and already cast out. Once again prodigious efforts stand before me. You have to dive down, as it were, and sink more rapidly than that which sinks in advance of you.

  Franz Kafka

  Writing, Effort, Incapacity

  Franz Kafka (1970). “The Trial”

  7 Copy quote

• 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.

  Franz Kafka

  Way, Emptiness, Improvement

  Franz Kafka (1970). “The Trial”

  7 Copy quote

• From the true antagonist illimitable courage is transmitted to you.
  To what indifference people may come, to what profound conviction of having lost the right track forever.

  Franz Kafka

  Courage, Adversity, People

  13 Copy quote

• You, who can't do anything, think you can bring off something like that? How can you even dare to think about it? If you were capable of it, you certainly wouldn't be in need of it.

  Franz Kafka

  Suicidal, Thinking, Needs

  7 Copy quote

• I stand on the end platform of the tram and am completely unsure of my footing in this world, in this town, in my family. Not even casually could I indicate any claims that I might rightly advance in any direction. I have not even any defense to offer for standing on this platform, holding on to this strap, letting myself be carried along by this tram, nor for the people who give way to the tram or walk quietly along or stand gazing into shop windows. Nobody asks me to put up a defense, indeed, but that is irrelevant.

  Franz Kafka

  People, Giving, Defense

  Franz Kafka (2009). “The Metamorphosis: And Other Stories”, p.35, Schocken

  19 Copy quote

• But Gregor understood easily that it was not only consideration for him which prevented their moving, for he could easily have been transported in a suitable crate with a few air holes; what mainly prevented the family from moving was their complete hopelessness and the thought that they had been struck by a misfortune as none of their relatives and acquaintances had ever been hit.

  Franz Kafka

  Moving, Air, Hopelessness

  Franz Kafka (1972). “The Metamorphosis”

  10 Copy quote

• If they were shocked, then Gregor had no further responsibility and could be calm. But if they took everything calmly, he he, too, had no reason to get excited and could, if he hurried, actually be at the station by eight o'clock.

  Franz Kafka

  Responsibility, Eight, Calm

  Franz Kafka (1972). “The Metamorphosis”

  4 Copy quote

• In one and the same human being there are cognitions that, however utterly dissimilar they are, yet have one and the same object,so that one can only conclude that there are different subjects in one and the same human being.

  Franz Kafka

  Experience, Different, Cognition

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

  7 Copy quote

• 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.

  Franz Kafka

  Writing, Diaries, Want

  Franz Kafka (1965). “The Diaries of Franz Kafka”

  11 Copy quote

• 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.

  Franz Kafka

  Horse, Block, Gay

  Franz Kafka (1946). “The great wall of China: stories and reflections”

  8 Copy quote

• He thought back on his family with deep emotion and love. His conviction that he would have to disappear was, if possible, even firmer than his sister's. He remained in this state of empty and peaceful reflection until the tower clock struck three in the morning. He still saw that outside the window everything was beginning to grow light. Then, without his consent, his head sank down to the floor, and from his nostrils streamed his last weak breath.

  Franz Kafka

  Morning, Reflection, Light

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

  4 Copy quote

• Everyone strives to attain the Law,' answers the man, 'how does it come about, then, that in all these years no one has come seeking admittance but me?' The doorkeeper perceives that the man is nearing his end and his hearing is failing, so he bellows in his ear: 'No one but you could gain admittance through this door, since this door was intended for you. I am now going to shut it.

  Franz Kafka

  Men, Law, Doors

  Franz Kafka (1970). “The Trial”

  4 Copy quote

• There they lay, but not in the forgetfulness of the previous night. She was seeking and he was seeking, they raged and contorted their faces and bored their heads into each others bosom in the urgency of seeking something, and their embraces and their tossing limbs did not avail to make them forget, but only reminded them of what they sought

  Franz Kafka

  Night, Bored, Faces

  Franz Kafka (1954). “The castle”, Alfred A. Knopf

  4 Copy quote

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