Top 425 Quotes & Sayings by Franz Kafka - Page 2

The Bible is a sanctum; the world, sputum.

Writers speak stench.

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.

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.

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

Association with human beings lures one into self-observation.

Anyone who cannot come to terms with his life while he is alive needs one hand to ward off a little his despair over his fate... but with his other hand he can note down what he sees among the ruins.

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

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

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

Let me remind you of the old maxim: people under suspicion are better moving than at rest, since at rest they may be sitting in the balance without knowing it, being weighed together with their sins.

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

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

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

The relationship to one's fellow man is the relationship of prayer, the relationship to oneself is the relationship of striving; it is from prayer that one draws the strength for one's striving.

In a certain sense the Good is comfortless.

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

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.

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.

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

Heaven is dumb, echoing only the dumb.

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

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

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

I am a cage, in search of a bird.

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.

If you find someone who makes you smile, who checks up on you often to see if you're okay. Who watches out or you and wants the best for you. Who loves and respects you. Don't let them go. People like that are hard to find.

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

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

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

Please — consider me a dream.

I write differently from what I speak, I speak differently from what I think, I think differently from the way I ought to think, and so it all proceeds into deepest darkness.

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

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

I’m doing badly, I’m doing well; whichever you prefer.

I never wish to be easily defined. I’d rather float over other people’s minds as something strictly fluid and non-perceivable; more like a transparent, paradoxically iridescent creature rather than an actual person.

We live in an age which is so possessed by demons, that soon we shall only be able to do goodness and justice in the deepest secrecy, as if it were a crime.

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

You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet, still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.

I want in fact more of you. In my mind I am dressing you with light; I am wrapping you up in blankets of complete acceptance and then I give myself to you. I long for you; I who usually long without longing, as though I am unconscious and absorbed in neutrality and apathy, really, utterly long for every bit of you.

Isolation is a way to know ourselves.

He is terribly afraid of dying because he hasn’t yet lived.

All language is but a poor translation.

Follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.

I usually solve problems by letting them devour me.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Paths are made by walking

The truth is always an abyss. One must — as in a swimming pool — dare to dive from the quivering springboard of trivial everyday experience and sink into the depths, in order to later rise again — laughing and fighting for breath — to the now doubly illuminated surface of things.

Only the moment counts. It determines life.

They say ignorance is bliss.... they're wrong

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.

I am free and that is why I am lost.

Don't bend; don't water it down; don't try to make it logical; don't edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.

The meaning of life is that it stops.

I have no memory for things I have learned, nor things I have read, nor things experienced or heard, neither for people nor events; I feel that I have experienced nothing, learned nothing, that I actually know less than the average schoolboy, and that what I do know is superficial, and that every second question is beyond me. I am incapable of thinking deliberately; my thoughts run into a wall. I can grasp the essence of things in isolation, but I am quite incapable of coherent, unbroken thinking. I can't even tell a story properly; in fact, I can scarcely talk.