Kafka Quotes

They linked arms with him in a way K. had never walked with anyone before — Franz Kafka

What Kafka said: I write to close my eyes. — Jenny Offill

You must not pay too much attention to opinions. The written word is unalterable, and opinions are often only an expression of despair. — Franz Kafka

The meaning of life is that it ends. — Franz Kafka

He is terribly afraid of dying because he hasn't yet lived. — Franz Kafka

What is gayer than believing in a household god? — Franz Kafka

My guiding principle is this: Guilt is never to be doubted. — Franz Kafka

Doing the Right Thing - Sometimes doing the right thing, is to do nothing at all. — Mike Kafka

Only the moment counts. It determines life. — Franz Kafka

Don't concern yourself about anybody. Just do what you think is right. — Franz Kafka

he gave way to a pleasant lassitude — Franz Kafka

His last words to Robert Klopstock are 'Kill me, or you are a murderer. — Franz Kafka

You do not need to accept everything as true, you only have to accept it as necessary. — Franz Kafka

There is infinite hope, but not for man. — Franz Kafka

Not everyone can see the truth, but everyone can be the truth. — Franz Kafka

The door could not be heard slamming; they had probably left it open, as is the custom in homes where a great misfortune has occurred. — Franz Kafka

But all remains unchanged. — Franz Kafka

I mustn't look at you too much, or I won't be able to take my eyes off you at all. — Franz Kafka

All language is but a poor translation. — Franz Kafka

One has just been sent out as a biblical dove, has found nothing green, and slips back into the darkness of the Ark — Franz Kafka

Next time I come here," he said to himself, "I must either bring sweets with me to make them like me or a stick to hit them with. — Franz Kafka

If the book we're reading doesn't wake us up with a blow on the head, what are we reading it for. — Franz Kafka

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

The Bible is a sanctum; the world, sputum. — Franz Kafka

all of the great writers drank, except for Kafka and Nietzsche, neither of whom you exactly wanted to be when you grew up. — Anne Lamott

In a way, I was safe writing — Franz Kafka

Kafka didn't save me. He just told me I was drowning. — Mark Slouka

Wrap your coat, O sublime dream, around the child. — Franz Kafka

Writing is a deeper sleep than death.
Just as one wouldn't pull a corpse from its grave,
I can't be dragged from my desk at night. — Franz Kafka

They did not know what we can now sense as we contemplate the course of history: that change begins in the soul before it shows in our lives ... — Franz Kafka

Do not pity yourself. If you wallow in self-pity, life will be an endless nightmare. — Kafka Asagiri

The right understanding of any matter and a misunderstanding of the same matter do not wholly exclude each other. — Franz Kafka

Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka — Franz Kafka

It is only our conception of time that makes us call the Last Judgment by this name. It is, in fact, a kind of martial law. — Franz Kafka

The various forms of despair at the various stations on the road. — Franz Kafka

Asking questions were the most important thing. — Franz Kafka

And yet the fear! — Franz Kafka

The state we find ourselves in is sinful quite independent of guilt. — Franz Kafka

And there shouldn't be anything to stop you carrying on with your usual life. — Franz Kafka

Kafka, it seems, is at his best when he fails. — Franz Kafka

One of the influences of Kafka over later writers is not so much in the content of his work as in its form. — John Kessel

The moment Kafka attracts more attenetion than Joseph K., Kafka's posthumous death begins. — Milan Kundera

Writing is a prayer. — Franz Kafka

There are two cardinal sins from which all others spring: Impatience and Laziness." Franz Kafka — Jason Harvey

My life was sweeter than other people's and my death will be more terrible by the same degree. — Franz Kafka

His growing lack of concern for the others hardly surprised him, whereas previously he had prided himself on being considerate. — Franz Kafka

I passed by the brothel as though
past the house of a beloved. — Franz Kafka

Out of Dostoevsky: Kafka. Out of Tolstoy: Margaret Mitchell.
(in conversation, explaining his dislike for Tolstoy) — Joseph Brodsky

But what now if all the peace, the comfort, the contentment were to come to a horrible end? — Franz Kafka

Religions get lost as people do. — Franz Kafka

But now you must give me your hand, an agreement of this sort needs to be confirmed with a handshake. Will she shake hands with me? — Franz Kafka

All that you are seeking is also seeking you — Franz Kafka

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

The moonlight lay everywhere with the natural peace that is granted to no other light. — Franz Kafka

In Hollywood, you still have wonderful actors, but it's so hard to work there. To work becomes a Kafka nightmare - it's the last communist country! — Gerard Depardieu

Anybody who preserves the ability to recognize beauty will never get old. — Franz Kafka

A man doesn't need to fly to the sun, he need only find a patch of clean earth, and crawl there, and let the sun shine on him. — Franz Kafka

The founder brought the laws from the lawgiver; the faithful are meant to announce the laws to the lawgiver. — Franz Kafka

I am a cage, in search of a bird. — Franz Kafka

I can never tear myself open wide enough to people to reveal everything and so frighten them away. — Franz Kafka

I do not read advertisements. I would spend all of my time wanting things. — Franz Kafka

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

I asked myself at the time: how is it that she is not astonished at herself, that she keeps her mouth closed, and expresses nothing of any wonderment? — Franz Kafka

Idleness is the beginning of all vice, the crown of all virtues. — Franz Kafka

A novelist who ranks with Proust , Kafka , Musil and his friend James Joyce as one of the enduring pillars of Modernism. — Italo Svevo

He had vented all his woes and now they might as well see the few rags that covered his body, after which they could carry him away. — Franz Kafka

It's only because of their stupidity that they're able to be so sure of themselves. — Franz Kafka

I never imagined that so many days would ultimately make such a small life. — Franz Kafka

When one has once accepted and absorbed Evil, it no longer demands to be believed. — Franz Kafka

Everyone has his cross to bear. — Franz Kafka

I'm doing badly, I'm doing well; whichever you prefer. — Franz Kafka

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

But sometimes I really felt as though the starry sky rose and fell with the gasping of his chest. — Franz Kafka

You misinterpret everything, even the silence. — Franz Kafka

Suffering is the positive element in this world, indeed it is the only link between this world and the positive. — Franz Kafka

One advantage in keeping a diary is that you become aware with reassuring clarity of the changes which you constantly suffer. — Franz Kafka

Believing in progress does not mean believing that any progress has yet been made. — Franz Kafka

Isolation is a way to know ourselves — Franz Kafka

I am not at peace with myself; I am not always "something," and if for once I am "something," I pay for it by "being nothing" for months on end. — Franz Kafka

True undoubting is the teacher's part, continual undoubting the part of the pupil. — Franz Kafka

Sometimes I'm overcome with such an aversion to human beings that I can barely refrain from retching. — Franz Kafka

You belong to me, even if I should never see you again. — Franz Kafka

Everything you say is boring and incomprehensible, but that alone doesn't make it true. — Franz Kafka

In that case, I'll miss the thing by waiting for it. — Franz Kafka

His exhaustion is that of the gladiator after the combat; his labor was the whitewashing of a corner of the wall in his office. — Kafka, Franz

I wanted to escape the unrest, to shut out the voices around me and within me, so I write. — Franz Kafka

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

Rolling country, not yet quite mountainous, with woods and lakes, is what I like best. — Franz Kafka

I usually solve problems by letting them devour me. — Franz Kafka

Every dog has like me the impulse to question, and I have like every dog the impulse not to answer. — Franz Kafka

Judgement does not come suddenly; the proceedings gradually merge into the judgement. — Franz Kafka

We come to mistake the crumbs of mercy for the feast of love — Franz Kafka

Not everyone can see the truth, but he can be it. — Franz Kafka

He is afraid the shame will outlive him. — Franz Kafka

All [the authorities] did was to guard the distant and invisible interests of distant and invisible masters — Franz Kafka

You're you, you see, and nobody else. You are you, right? — Haruki Murakami

Official decisions are as elusive
as young girls. — Franz Kafka

I need solitude for my writing; not 'like a hermit' - that wouldn't be enough - but like a dead man. — Franz Kafka

Oh, a bookshop. Why not pop in and buy a little Kant? And perhaps just a quarter-pound of Kafka. Don't bother to wrap it, thanks. I'll eat it here. — Frederick Busch

WHEN Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from troubled dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous insect. — Franz Kafka