Franz Kafka Quotes And Sayings

Franz Kafka was a German-language writer of novels and short stories who is widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work, which fuses elements of realism and the fantastic, typically features isolated protagonists faced by bizarre or surrealistic predicaments and incomprehensible social-bureaucratic powers, and has been interpreted as exploring themes of alienation, existential anxiety, guilt, and absurdity. The term Kafkaesque has entered the English language to describe situations like those in his writing.

Every Revolution Evaporates And Leaves Behind Only The Slime Of A New Bureaucracy.

A First Sign Of The Beginning Of Understanding Is The Wish To Die.

You Can Hold Yourself Back From The Sufferings Of The World, That Is Something You Are Free To Do And It Accords With Your Nature, But Perhaps This Very Holding Back Is The One Suffering You Could Avoid.

God Gives The Nuts, But He Does Not Crack Them.

So Long As You Have Food In Your Mouth, You Have Solved All Questions For The Time Being.

Youth Is Happy Because It Has The Ability To See Beauty. Anyone Who Keeps The Ability To See Beauty Never Grows Old.

If It Had Been Possible To Build The Tower Of Babel Without Climbing It, It Would Have Been Permitted.

Self-control Means Wanting To Be Effective At Some Random Point In The Infinite Radiations Of My Spiritual Existence.

Always First Draw Fresh Breath After Outbursts Of Vanity And Complacency.

The History Of Mankind Is The Instant Between Two Strides Taken By A Traveler.

Start With What Is Right Rather Than What Is Acceptable.

Hesitation Before Birth. If There Is A Transmigration Of Souls Then I Am Not Yet On The Bottom Rung. My Life Is A Hesitation Before Birth.

One Advantage In Keeping A Diary Is That You Become Aware With Reassuring Clarity Of The Changes Which You Constantly Suffer.

Sensual Love Deceives One As To The Nature Of Heavenly Love; It Could Not Do So Alone, But Since It Unconsciously Has The Element Of Heavenly Love Within It, It Can Do So.

A Book Must Be The Ax For The Frozen Sea Within Us.

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.

If I Shall Exist Eternally, How Shall I Exist Tomorrow?

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.

By Believing Passionately In Something That Still Does Not Exist, We Create It. The Nonexistent Is Whatever We Have Not Sufficiently Desired.

May I Kiss You Then? On This Miserable Paper? I Might As Well Open The Window And Kiss The Night Air.

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.

Anyone Who Keeps The Ability To See Beauty Never Grows Old.

If There Is A Transmigration Of Souls Then I Am Not Yet On The Bottom Rung. My Life Is A Hesitation Before Birth.

It Is Often Safer To Be In Chains Than To Be Free.

The Thornbush Is The Old Obstacle In The Road. It Must Catch Fire If You Want To Go Further.

The Mediation By The Serpent Was Necessary. Evil Can Seduce Man, But Cannot Become Man.

Test Yourself On Mankind. It Is Something That Makes The Doubter Doubt, The Believer Believe.

We Are Separated From God On Two Sides; The Fall Separates Us From Him, The Tree Of Life Separates Him From Us.

Dread Of Night. Dread Of Not-night.

Hiding Places There Are Innumerable, Escape Is Only One, But Possibilities Of Escape, Again, Are As Many As Hiding Places.

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.

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.

Believing In Progress Does Not Mean Believing That Any Progress Has Yet Been Made.

Martyrs Do Not Underrate The Body, They Allow It To Be Elevated On The Cross. In This They Are At One With Their Antagonists.

How Pathetically Scanty My Self-knowledge Is Compared With, Say, My Knowledge Of My Room. There Is No Such Thing As Observation Of The Inner World, As There Is Of The Outer World.

Not Everyone Can See The Truth, But He Can Be It.

I Do Not Read Advertisements. I Would Spend All Of My Time Wanting Things.

The Indestructible Is One: It Is Each Individual Human Being And, At The Same Time, It Is Common To All, Hence The Incomparably Indivisible Union That Exists Between Human Beings.

Evil Is Whatever Distracts.

I Have The True Feeling Of Myself Only When I Am Unbearably Unhappy.

It Is Not Necessary That You Leave The House. Remain At Your Table And Listen. Do Not Even Listen, Only Wait. Do Not Even Wait, Be Wholly Still And Alone. The World Will Present Itself To You For Its Unmasking, It Can Do No Other, In Ecstasy It Will Writhe At Your Feet.

By Imposing Too Great A Responsibility, Or Rather, All Responsibility, On Yourself, You Crush Yourself.

One Of The First Signs Of The Beginning Of Understanding Is The Wish To Die.

My 'Fear' Is My Substance, And Probably The Best Part Of Me.

The Spirit Becomes Free Only When It Ceases To Be A Support.

One Must Not Cheat Anyone, Not Even The World Of Its Victory.

We All Have Wings, But They Have Not Been Of Any Avail To Us And If We Could Tear Them Off, We Would Do So.

In Theory There Is A Possibility Of Perfect Happiness: To Believe In The Indestructible Element Within One, And Not To Strive Towards It.

Heaven Is Dumb, Echoing Only The Dumb.

Productivity Is Being Able To Do Things That You Were Never Able To Do Before.