Explore a treasure trove of wisdom and insight from Franz Kafka through their most impactful and thought-provoking quotes and sayings. Broaden your horizons with their inspiring words and share these beautiful quote pictures from Franz Kafka with your friends and followers on popular social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, or your personal blog - all free of charge. Delve into our collection of the top 438 Franz Kafka quotes, handpicked for you to discover and share with others.

Alone I continue living, yet when a visitor arrives it kills me. By 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. By Franz Kafka

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

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

The mediation by the serpent was necessary. Evil can seduce man, but cannot become man. By Franz Kafka

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

I'm a cage, in search of a bird. By Franz Kafka

First impressions are always unreliable. By Franz Kafka

Since I met you, I've felt abandoned without your nearness; your nearness is all I ever dream of, the only thing. By Franz Kafka

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

Yours(now I'm even losing my name - it was getting shorter and shorter all the time and is now: Yours) By Franz Kafka

It was half past six and the hands were quietly moving forwards. By Franz Kafka

I am a very unhappy human being and you, dearest, simply had to be summoned to create an equilibrium for all this misery. By Franz Kafka

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

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

Someone must have slandered Josef K., for one morning, without having done anything truly wrong, he was arrested. By Franz Kafka

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

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

No matter how much you keep encouraging someone who is blindfolded to stare through the cloth, he still won't see a thing.. By Franz Kafka

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

One morning Gregor Samsa found himself, in bed, transformed into a monstrous vermin. By Franz Kafka

He remembered his family with deep feelings of love. By Franz Kafka

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

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

In me, by myself, without human relationship, there are no visible lies. The limited circle is pure. By Franz Kafka

You are the knife I turn inside myself; that is love. That, my dear, is love. By Franz Kafka

It is only because of their stupidity that they are able to be so sure of themselves. By Franz Kafka

One day, a leopard stalked into the synagogue, roaring and lashing its tail. Three weeks later, it had become part of the liturgy. By Franz Kafka

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

There sat I, a faded being, under faded leaves. By Franz Kafka

[He] used to be so insignificant that one literally felt alone in his presence. By Franz Kafka

Then his head sank to the floor of its own accord and from his nostrils came the last faint flicker of his breath. By Franz Kafka

How can one take delight in the world unless one flees to it for refuge? By Franz Kafka

Utter despair, impossible to pull myself together; Only when I have become satisfied with my sufferings can I stop. By Franz Kafka

Some books seem like a key to unfamiliar rooms in one's own castle. By Franz Kafka

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

By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired. By Franz Kafka

The amount of quiet I need does not exist in the world, from which it follows that no one ought to need so much quiet. By 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. By Franz Kafka

I'm thinking only of my illness and my health, though both, the first as well as the second, are you. By Franz Kafka

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

People label themselves with all sorts of adjectives. I can only pronounce myself as 'nauseatingly miserable beyond repair'. By 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. By Franz Kafka

Martyrs do not underrate the body, they allow it to be elevated on the cross. In this they are at one with their antagonists. By Franz Kafka

I am on the hunt for constructions. I come into a room and find them whitely merging in a corner. By Franz Kafka

Life is hard, the earth stubborn, science rich in knowledge but poor in practical results. By 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 By Franz Kafka

I made the remark that I don't avoid people in order to live quietly, but rather in order to be able to die quietly. By Franz Kafka

Calm - indeed the calmest - reflection might be better than the most confused decisions By Franz Kafka

In argument similes are like songs in love; they describe much, but prove nothing. By Franz Kafka

I would be speaking even with my silence, because at the moment I am nothing but a single word. By Franz Kafka

I look a girl in the eye and it was a very long love story with thunder and kisses and lightning. I live fast. By Franz Kafka

Some deny the existence of misery by pointing to the sun; he denies the existence of the sun by pointing to misery. By Franz Kafka

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

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

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

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

I can't fashion myself into a different person who might be better suited to be his friend. By Franz Kafka

Today one may pluck out one's very heart and not find it. By Franz Kafka

Adam's first domestic pet after the expulsion from Paradise was the serpent. By Franz Kafka

All human errors are impatience, a premature breaking off of methodical procedure, an apparent fencing-in of what is apparently at issue. By Franz Kafka

his armour-hard back By Franz Kafka

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

Now I can look at you in peace; I don't eat you any more. By Franz Kafka

Nor is it perhaps really love when I say that for me you are the most beloved; In this love you are like a knife, with which I explore myself. By Franz Kafka

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. By Franz Kafka

Humility provides everyone, even him who despairs in solitude, with the strongest relationship to his fellow man. By Franz Kafka

Let the future sleep for now, as it deserves. If you wake it too early, you get a groggy present. By Franz Kafka

The thornbush is the old obstacle in the road. It must catch fire if you want to go further. By Franz Kafka

There was always something in me to catch fire, in this heap of straw that I have been. By Franz Kafka

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

No one can crave what truly harms him. By Franz Kafka

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

he gave way to a pleasant lassitude By Franz Kafka

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

But all remains unchanged. By Franz Kafka

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

All language is but a poor translation. By Franz Kafka

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

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

In a way, I was safe writing By Franz Kafka

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

Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka By 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. By Franz Kafka

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

Asking questions were the most important thing. By Franz Kafka

And yet the fear! By Franz Kafka

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Religions get lost as people do. By Franz Kafka

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

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

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

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

Writing is a prayer. By Franz Kafka

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

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

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. By Franz Kafka

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

Everyone has his cross to bear. By Franz Kafka

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

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

You misinterpret everything, even the silence. By Franz Kafka

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

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

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

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

Isolation is a way to know ourselves By Franz Kafka

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

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

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

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

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

I ought to be able to invent words capable of blowing the odor of corpses in a direction other than straight into mine and the reader's face. By Franz Kafka

A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us. By Franz Kafka

If the literature we are reading does not wake us, why then do we read it? A literary work must be an ice-axe to break the sea frozen inside us. By Franz Kafka

16 February. Can't see my way clear. As though everything I possessed had escaped me, and as though it would hardly satisfy me if it all returned. By Franz Kafka

You see, I have only such a fugitive awareness of things around me that I always feel they were once real and are now fleeting away. By Franz Kafka

The ulterior motives with which you absorb and assimilate Evil are not your own but those of Evil. By Franz Kafka

We are separated from God on two sides; the Fall separates us from Him, the Tree of Life separates Him from us. By Franz Kafka

I, however, cannot force myself to use "meat drugs" to cheat on my loneliness. By Franz Kafka

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

It seems to be a fact that man, tortured by his demons, avenges himself blindly on his fellow-man. By Franz Kafka

Paths are made by walking By Franz Kafka

A non-writing writer is a monster courting insanity.[Letter to Max Brod, July 5, 1922] By Franz Kafka

[Love] has as few problems as a motocar. The only problems are the driver, the passengers, and the road. By Franz Kafka

His numerous legs, pitifully thin in comparison to the rest of his circumference, flickered helplessly before his eyes. By Franz Kafka

If a man has his eyes bound, you can encourage him as much as you like to stare through the bandage, but he'll never see anything. By Franz Kafka

I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself. By Franz Kafka

A lawyer is a person who writes a 10,000-word document and calls it a "brief." By Franz Kafka

Always first draw fresh breath after outbursts of vanity and complacency. By Franz Kafka

Beyond a certain point there is no return. This point has to be reached. By Franz Kafka

Palestine needs earth, but it does not need lawyers. By Franz Kafka

Don Quixote's misfortune is not his imagination, but Sancho Panza. By Franz Kafka

Written kisses don't reach their destination, rather they are drunk on the way by the ghosts. By Franz Kafka

Written kisses never arrive at their destination; the ghosts drink them up along the way. By Franz Kafka

There is a destination but no way there; what we refer to as way is hesitation. By Franz Kafka

Celibacy and suicide are a similar levels of understanding, suicide and a martyr's death not so by any means, perhaps marriage and a martyr's death. By Franz Kafka

I can't feel a thing; All mournful petal storms are dancing inside the very private spring of my head. By Franz Kafka

What do I have in common with Jews? I don't even have anything in common with myself. By Franz Kafka

Life is merely terrible; I feel it as few others do. Often - and in my inmost self perhaps all the time - I doubt whether I am a human being. By Franz Kafka

How about if I sleep a little bit longer and forget all this nonsense, By Franz Kafka

The messiah will come when we don't need him anymore. By Franz Kafka

I can love only what I can place so high above me that I cannot reach it. By Franz Kafka

Devilish in my innocence. By Franz Kafka

I am a retiring, silent, unsociable, and discontent person. By Franz Kafka

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. By Franz Kafka

A First Sign of the Beginning of Understanding is the Wish to Die. By Franz Kafka

As far as I have seen, at school ... they aimed at blotting out one's individuality. By Franz Kafka

But what if all the tranquility, all the comfort, all the contentment were now to come to a horrifying end? By Franz Kafka

Kafka earned his doctorate in law in 1906 but decided against practicing, to the disappointment of his father. By Franz Kafka

One tells as few lies as possible only by telling as few lies as possible and not by having the least possible opportunity to do so. By Franz Kafka

Someone must have been telling lies about Joseph K., for without having done anything wrong he was arrested one fine morning. By Franz Kafka

Books are a narcotic. By Franz Kafka

A loyal and loving son, Gregor feels obligated to pay off his parents' debt. Simply quitting would betray that loyalty. By Franz Kafka

Every one of us has a bad conscience, which he tries to escape by going to sleep as quickly as possible. By Franz Kafka

2 November. This morning, for the first time in a long time, the joy again of imagining a knife twisted in my heart. By Franz Kafka

Should I be grateful or should I curse the fact that despite all misfortune I can still feel love, an unearthly love but still for earthly objects. By Franz Kafka

There is nothing bad to fear; once you have crossed that threshold, all is well. Another world, and you do not have to speak By Franz Kafka

You are so vulnerably haunting. Your eeriness is terrifyingly irresistible. By Franz Kafka

Evil does not exist; once you have crossed the threshold, all is good. Once in another world, you must hold your tongue. By Franz Kafka

From the true antagonist illimitable courage is transmitted to you. By Franz Kafka

I'm not in the right place - alas, I cannot rid myself of the feeling that I'm not in the right place. By Franz Kafka

Herr Kafka, essen Sie keine Eier." (As one and only piece of dialog K recalls from his meeting with Rudolf Steiner - "Mr. Kafka don't eat eggs. By Franz Kafka

Could K. represent the congregation all by himself? What if he had been a stranger merely visiting the church? That was more or less his position. By Franz Kafka

Faith, like a guillotine. As heavy, as light. By Franz Kafka

As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. By Franz Kafka

Always only the desire to die and the not-yet-yielding; this alone is love. By Franz Kafka

You can choose to be free , but it's last decision you'll ever make By Franz Kafka

Art is for the artist is only suffering through which he releases himself for further suffering. By Franz Kafka

Slept, awoke, slept, awoke, miserable life. By Franz Kafka

There is a place where I never was before: here breathing is different, and more dazzling than the sun is the radiance of a star beside it. By Franz Kafka

The truth is always an abyss. By Franz Kafka

She is so distinct to me, it's as though I had run my hands all over her. By Franz Kafka

Utterance does not in principle mean a weakening of convictionthat would not be anything to be deploredbut a weakness of conviction. By Franz Kafka

I believe that we should only read those books that bite and sting us. If a book does not rouse us with a blow then why read it? By Franz Kafka

Simply wait, be quiet, still The world will freely offer itself to you. By Franz Kafka

They say ignorance is bliss.... they're wrong By Franz Kafka

But questions that don't answer themselves at the very moment of their asking are never answered. By Franz Kafka

To animalise is humane, to humanise is animal. By Franz Kafka

He who does not answer the questions has passed the test. By Franz Kafka

What am I doing in this eternal winter? By Franz Kafka

It's often better to be in chains than to be free. By Franz Kafka

I repeat: there was no attraction for me in imitating human beings; I imitated them because I needed a way out, and for no other reason. By Franz Kafka

I no longer know If I wish to drown myself in love, vodka or the sea. By Franz Kafka

Like a dog! he said, it was as if the shame of it should outlive him. By Franz Kafka

How are we to avoid those in office becoming deeply corrupt when everything is devoid of meaning? By Franz Kafka

The onlookers go rigid when the train goes past. By Franz Kafka

I have discovered your great wound. You are dying from this flower blooming on your side. By Franz Kafka

A false ring of the night bell, once answered - it can never be made right. By Franz Kafka

Association with human beings lures one into self-observation. By Franz Kafka

There art two cardinal sins from which all others spring: Impatience and Laziness. By Franz Kafka

I never wish to be easily defined. By Franz Kafka

Torment yourself as little as possible, then you'll torment me less. By Franz Kafka

I lack nothing. I only needed myself. By Franz Kafka

If it had been possible to build the Tower of Babel without ascending it, the work would have been permitted. By Franz Kafka

Sometimes I think I can expiate all my past and future sins through the aching of my bones. By Franz Kafka

Kafka saw his tuberculosis as a liberation; interestingly, he called it "the animal. By Franz Kafka

One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in his bed he had been changed into a monstrous bug ... By Franz Kafka

In a certain sense the Good is comfortless. By Franz Kafka

A stair not worn hollow by footsteps is, regarded from its own point of view, only a boring something made of wood. By Franz Kafka

Above all, the free man is superior to the man who has to serve another. By Franz Kafka

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

The spirit becomes free only when it ceases to be a support. By Franz Kafka

But I will write in spite of everything, absolutely; it is my struggle for self-preservation. By Franz Kafka

Oh, plenty of hope, an infinite amount of hopebut not for us. By Franz Kafka

The history of mankind is the instant between two strides taken by a traveler. By Franz Kafka

Look at this, Willem, he admits he doesn't know the law and at the same time insists he's innocent. By Franz Kafka

I have the true feeling of myself only when I am unbearably unhappy. By Franz Kafka

My heart no longer beats but is a tugging muscle, By Franz Kafka

And for a little while he lay still, breathing lightly as if he expected total repose would restore everything to its normal and unquestionable state. By Franz Kafka

May I kiss you then? On this miserable paper? I might as well open the window and kiss the night air. By Franz Kafka

Nothing unites two people so completely, especially if, like you and me, all they have is words. By Franz Kafka

Incidentally, it's easy to write prescriptions, but difficult to come to an understanding with people. By Franz Kafka

To write prescriptions is easy, but to come to an understanding with people is hard. By Franz Kafka

It would be very unjust to say that you deserted me, but that I was deserted, and sometimes terribly so, is true. By Franz Kafka

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. By Franz Kafka

Now, her bedside table had been pulled into the middle of the room to be used as a desk for these proceedings, and the supervisor sat behind it. By Franz Kafka

Only that which happens is possible. By Franz Kafka

If you have food in your jaws you have solved all questions for the time being. By Franz Kafka

The first thing he saw in the small room was a large clock on the wall which already showed ten o'clock. By Franz Kafka

Lost among these entirely strange people. By Franz Kafka

Wayas her hands reached to the back of his father's head and she begged him to spare Gregor's life. By Franz Kafka

One does not have to believe everything is true, one only has to believe it is necessary. By Franz Kafka

Most men are not wicked ... They are sleep-walkers, not evil evildoers. By Franz Kafka

Alone -- do you know what that means? By Franz Kafka

We are instructed to do the negative; the positive is already within us. By Franz Kafka

Conversations bore me, to visit people bores me, the sorrows and joys of my relatives bore me to my soul. By Franz Kafka

Logic may indeed be unshakeable, but it cannot withstand a man who is determined to live. By Franz Kafka

Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before. By Franz Kafka

What's happened to me,' he thought. It was no dream. By Franz Kafka

There are questions we could not get past if we were not set free from them by our very nature. By Franz Kafka

The purpose of a story is to be an axe that breaks up the ice within us. By Franz Kafka

I have spent all my life resisting the desire to end it. By Franz Kafka

Illusions are more common than changes in fortune By Franz Kafka

I am as I am, and that's all there is to it, I can hardly take a pair of scissors to myself, and cut out a different person ... By Franz Kafka

I am forever fettered to myself [ ... ] and that's what I must try to live with. By Franz Kafka

There can be no more beautiful spot to die in, no spot more worthy of total despair, than one's own novel. By Franz Kafka

Many a book is like a key to unknown chambers within the castle of one's own self. By Franz Kafka

In the mountains our throats become free. It's a wonder we don't break into song. By Franz Kafka

Don't be too hasty, don't take somebody else's opinion without testing it. By Franz Kafka

In man's struggle against the world, bet on the world. By Franz Kafka

In the struggle between yourself and the world, hold the world's coat. By Franz Kafka

It's always questionable to intervene decisively in strange circumstances. By Franz Kafka

Nothing, you know, gives the body greater satisfaction than ordering people about, or at least believing in one's ability to do so. By Franz Kafka

It's impossible to defend oneself in the absence of goodwill By Franz Kafka

You see, Willem, he admits he doesn't know the law, and at the same time claims he's innocent. By Franz Kafka

I am free and that's why I am lost By Franz Kafka

Like tired dogs they stand there,because they use up all their strengthin remaining upright in one's memory. By Franz Kafka

It's characteristic of this judicial system that a man is condemned not only when he's innocent but also in ignorance. By Franz Kafka

One must fight to get to the top, especially if one starts at the bottom. By Franz Kafka

Our art is a way of being dazzled by truth: the light on the grotesquely grimacing retreating face is true, and nothing else. By Franz Kafka

I like to make use of what I know By Franz Kafka

He was a tool of the boss, without brains or backbone. By Franz Kafka

Writing is utter solitude, the descent into the cold abyss of oneself. By Franz Kafka

I miss you deeply, unfathomably, senselessly, terribly. By Franz Kafka

August 2, 1914: Germany has declared war on Russia. Went swimming in the afternoon. By Franz Kafka

There is an infinite amount of hope in the universe ... but not for us. By Franz Kafka

So then you're free?' 'Yes, I'm free,' said Karl, and nothing seemed more worthless than his freedom. By Franz Kafka

The meaning of life is that it stops. By Franz Kafka

Start with what is right rather than what is acceptable. By Franz Kafka

This noble body, equipped with everything necessary, almost to the point of bursting, also appeared to carry freedom around with it. By Franz Kafka

Where was the judge he'd never seen? Where was the high court he had never reached? By Franz Kafka

I do not see the world at all; I invent it. By Franz Kafka

I can't sleep and the rain is determined not to quit soliloquizing about you all night. I can't help but overhear, my dear. By Franz Kafka

Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy. By Franz Kafka

So now you know what else existed in the world outside of you, before you knew only about yourself! By Franz Kafka

Fear of night. Fear of not night. By Franz Kafka

No sooner said than done - so acts your man of worth. By Franz Kafka

You are free and that is why you are lost. By Franz Kafka

God gives the nuts, but he does not crack them. By Franz Kafka

The man in ecstasy and the man drowning - both throw up their arms. By Franz Kafka

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. By Franz Kafka

Heaven is dumb, echoing only the dumb. By Franz Kafka

It was because of impatience that they were expelled from Paradise; it is because of impatience that they do not return. By Franz Kafka

What am I doing here in this endless winter? By Franz Kafka

Looking on oneself as something alien, forgetting the sight, remembering the gaze. By Franz Kafka

Without any way out, not even toward the depth. By Franz Kafka

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

Man cannot live without a continuous confidence in something indestructible within himself. By Franz Kafka

Go on caring for me. By Franz Kafka

But happiness only if I can raise the world into the Pure, the True, the Immutable. By Franz Kafka

I am nothing but literature, and can and want to be nothing else. By Franz Kafka

I have hardly anything in common with myself and should stand very quietly in a corner, content that I can breathe. By Franz Kafka

Logic is doubtless unshakable, but it cannot withstand a man who wants to go on living. By Franz Kafka

If something good has lost its way into you, it will make its escape overnight. I know you. By Franz Kafka

Tyranny or slavery, born of selfishness, are the two educational methods of parents; all gradations of tyranny or slavery. By Franz Kafka

I only fear danger where I want to fear it. By Franz Kafka

All I am is literature, and I am not able or willing to be anything else. By Franz Kafka

Youth is happy because it has the capacity to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old. By Franz Kafka

Sometimes in his arrogance he has more anxiety for the world than for himself. By Franz Kafka

You will get to know me better; there are still a number of horrible recesses in me that you don't know. By Franz Kafka

Above all, he could not stop half way, that was nonsense not only in business but always and everywhere. By Franz Kafka

Theoretically there is a perfect possibility of happiness: believing in the indestructible element in oneself and not striving towards it. By Franz Kafka

But you get used to the air alright in the end. When you're here for the second or third time you'll hardly notice how oppressive the air is. By Franz Kafka

Writing is prayer. By Franz Kafka

The limited circle is pure. By Franz Kafka

My writing was all about you; all I did there, after all, was to bemoan what I could not bemoan upon your breast. By Franz Kafka

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

Self-control means wanting to be effective at some random point in the infinite radiations of my spiritual existence. By Franz Kafka

For a time I let my mouth hang open, so that my excitement might take opportunity and leave. By Franz Kafka

Work as joy, inaccessible to the psychologists. By Franz Kafka

Ours is a lost generation, it may be, but it is more blameless than those earlier generations. By Franz Kafka

Nothing is as deceptive as a photograph. By Franz Kafka

If you come to me you will be leaping into the abyss. By Franz Kafka

Just because your doctor has a name for your condition, doesn't mean he knows what it is. By Franz Kafka

Deceptions are more frequent than changes By Franz Kafka

Maybe innocence makes its way easiest through the elemental chaos of this world ... By Franz Kafka

The poisonous world flows into my mouth like water into that of a drowning man By Franz Kafka

There will be no proof that I ever was a writer. By Franz Kafka

Logic is of course unshakeable, but it cannot hold out against a man who wants to live. By Franz Kafka

It receives you when you come and dismisses you when you go. By Franz Kafka

It would have been so pointless to kill himself that, even if he had wanted to, the pointlessness would have made him unable. By Franz Kafka

The Messiah will only come when he is no longer needed. By Franz Kafka

I do not speak as I think, I do not think as I should, and so it all goes on in helpless darkness. By Franz Kafka

The longer one hesitates before the door, the more estranged one becomes. By Franz Kafka

By your side I'm most quiet and most unquiet, most inhibited and most free. By Franz Kafka

Whatever he may seem to us, he is yet a servant of the Law; that is, he belongs to the Law and as such is set beyond human judgment. By Franz Kafka

I am away from home and must always write home, even if any home of mine has long since floated away into eternity. By Franz Kafka

The true word leads; the untrue misleads. By Franz Kafka

My 'fear' is my substance, and probably the best part of me. By Franz Kafka

Hiding places there are innumerable, escape is only one, but possibilities of escape, again, are as many as hiding places. By Franz Kafka

I carry the bars within me. By Franz Kafka

Even if no salvation should come, I want to be worthy of it at every moment. By Franz Kafka

Such a young trial! By Franz Kafka

The blend of absurd, surreal and mundane which gave rise to the adjective kafkaesque By Franz Kafka

By imposing too great a responsibility, or rather, all responsibility, on yourself, you crush yourself. By Franz Kafka

One must not cheat anyone, not even the world of its victory. By Franz Kafka

Youth looks good in anything; unpleasant details lose themselves against the unabating vigour of youth ... By Franz Kafka

The observer of the soul cannot penetrate into the soul, but there doubtless is a margin where he comes into contact with it. By Franz Kafka

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

From a real antagonist one gains boundless courage. By Franz Kafka

At that point I asked myself: How is it that she is not amazed at herself, that she keeps her lips closed and makes no such remark? By Franz Kafka

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. By Franz Kafka

Writing [is] a form of prayer. By Franz Kafka

The dream reveals the reality which conception lags behind. That is the horror of life-the terror of art. By Franz Kafka

Uncertainty, aridity, peace-all things will resolve themselves into these and pass away. By Franz Kafka

Nothing, nothing, the whole long day, nothing. By Franz Kafka

Please - consider me a dream. By Franz Kafka

There is a goal but no way; what we call the way is mere wavering. By Franz Kafka

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

Going to pieces. To go to pieces so pointlessly and unnecessarily. By Franz Kafka

Writer speaks a stench. By Franz Kafka

What if I slept a little more and forgot about all this nonsense. By Franz Kafka

Just think how many thoughts a blanket smothers while one lies alone in bed, and how many unhappy dreams it keeps warm. By Franz Kafka

Even the merest gesture is holy if it is filled with faith. By Franz Kafka

What is written is merely the dregs of experience. By Franz Kafka

You need not even listen, just wait ... the world will offer itself freely to you, unmasking itself. By Franz Kafka

You too have weapons. By Franz Kafka

Why was Gregor the only one condemned to work in a firm where, at the slightest lapse, someone immediately attracted the greatest suspicion? By Franz Kafka

He who seeks does not find, but he who does not seek will be found. By Franz Kafka

I feel an unhappiness which almost dismembers me, and at the same time am convinced of its necessity By Franz Kafka

There are times when I am convinced I am unfit for any human relationship. By Franz Kafka

Every thing that you love, you will eventually lose, but in the end, love will return in a different form. By Franz Kafka

Anything that has real and lasting value is always a gift from within. By Franz Kafka

All knowledge, the totality of all questions and answers, is contained in the dog. By Franz Kafka

Picasso only registers the deformities which have not yet penetrated our consciousness. Art is a mirror which goes 'fast' like a watch - sometimes. By Franz Kafka

Anyone who believes cannot experience miracles. By day one does not see any stars. Anyone who does miracles says: I cannot let goof the earth. By Franz Kafka

If I didn't hold back for my parents' sake, I would've quit ages ago. By Franz Kafka

I am never serious, and therefore I have to make jokes do duty both for jest and earnest. By Franz Kafka

Love is, that you are the knife which I plunge into myself. By Franz Kafka

I write to close my eyes. By Franz Kafka

Sleep is the most innocent creature there is and a sleepless manthe most guilty. By Franz Kafka

There was once a community of scoundrels, that is to say, they were not scoundrels, but ordinary people. By Franz Kafka

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 By Franz Kafka

Writing means revealing oneself to excess. By Franz Kafka

In a certain sense you deny the existence of this world. You explain life as a state of rest, a state of rest in motion. By Franz Kafka

Either the world is so tiny or we are enormous; in either case, we fill it completely. By Franz Kafka

Woman, or more precisely put, perhaps, marriage, is the representative of life with which you are meant to come to terms. By Franz Kafka

I could have built the Pyramids with the effort it takes me to cling on to life and reason. By Franz Kafka

Love is a drama of contradictions. By Franz Kafka

Accept your symptoms, don't complain of them; immerse yourself in your suffering. By Franz Kafka

Sometimes she would hide her eyes behind her hands, and then no words could get through to her. By Franz Kafka

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

calm consideration was much better than rushing to desperate conclusions. By Franz Kafka

A book must be an ice-axe to break the seas frozen inside our soul. By Franz Kafka

At least descriptive psychology is probably, taken as a whole, a form of anthropomorphism, a nibbling at our own limits. By Franz Kafka

One hears a great many things, true, but can gather nothing definite. By Franz Kafka

A book should serve as the ax for the frozen sea within us. By Franz Kafka

Do not waste your time looking for an obstacle - maybe there is none. By Franz Kafka

It is often safer to be in chains than to be free. By Franz Kafka

I have now, and have had since this afternoon, a great yearning to write all of my anxiety entirely out of me. By Franz Kafka

You've seen yourself how difficult the writing is to decipher with your eyes, but our man deciphers it with his wounds. By Franz Kafka

I am free and that is why I am lost. By Franz Kafka

There is a down-and-outness under true knowledge and a childlike happy arising from it. By Franz Kafka

Kill me, or you are a murderer. By Franz Kafka

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. By Franz Kafka

You are at once both the quiet and the confusion of my heart. By Franz Kafka

Scratch your flesh raw between your toes, but you won't find the answer. By Franz Kafka

I'm tired, can't think of anything and want only to lay my face in your lap, feel your hand on my head and remain like that through all eternity. By Franz Kafka

So eager are our people to obliterate the present. By Franz Kafka

He looked sadly down at the street, as though it were his own bottomless sadness. By Franz Kafka

A book should serve as an axe to the ice inside us. By Franz Kafka

Test yourself on mankind. It is something that makes the doubter doubt, the believer believe. By Franz Kafka

There are some things one can only achieve by a deliberate leap in the opposite direction. By Franz Kafka

I am in chains. Don't touch my chains. By Franz Kafka

I have no literary interests; I am made of literature. I am nothing else and cannot be anything else. By Franz Kafka

Dread of night. Dread of not-night. By Franz Kafka

If I could drown in sleep as I drown in fear I would be no longer alive. By Franz Kafka

The door could not be heard closing; they must have left it open as is usual in houses visited by great misfortune. By Franz Kafka

How lonely it is here, and how well it suits you. By Franz Kafka

In the fight between you and the world, back the world. By Franz Kafka

One idiot is one idiot. Two idiots are two idiots. Ten thousand idiots are a political party. By Franz Kafka

I'll shut myself off from everyone to the point of insensibility. Make an enemy of everyone, speak to no one. By Franz Kafka

Wherever I turn, the black wave rushes down on me. By Franz Kafka

Evil is the starry sky of the Good. By Franz Kafka

Nobody else could have got in this way, as this entrance was meant only for you. Now I'll go and close it'." "So By Franz Kafka

All that matters is that the wound fit the arrow By Franz Kafka

48 Belief in progress doesn't mean belief in progress that has already occurred. That would not require belief. By Franz Kafka

Evil is whatever distracts. By Franz Kafka

Was he an animal that music so captivated him? By Franz Kafka

One reads in order to ask questions By Franz Kafka

Guilt is never to be doubted. By Franz Kafka

For myself I am too heavy, and for you too light. By Franz Kafka

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