Franz Kafka quotes - page 3

One of the first signs of the beginning of understanding is the wish to die. (Franz Kafka)
They're talking about things of which they don't have the slightest understanding, anyway. It's only because of their stupidity that they're able to be so sure of themselves. View quote
Franz Kafka
All human errors are impatience, a premature breaking off of methodical procedure, an apparent fencing-in of what is apparently at issue. View quote
Franz Kafka
"Don't you want to join us?" I was recently asked by an acquaintance when he ran across me alone after midnight in a coffeehouse that was already almost deserted. "No, I don't," I said. View quote
Franz Kafka
There's no quiet place here on earth for our love, not in the village and not anywhere else, so I picture a grave, deep and narrow, in which we embrace as if clamped together, I bury my face against you, you yours against me, and no one will ever see us. View quote
Franz Kafka
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. View quote
Franz Kafka
I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself. View quote
Franz Kafka
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. View quote
Franz Kafka
What if I slept a little more and forgot about all this nonsense. View quote
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. View quote
Franz Kafka
All language is but a poor translation. (Franz Kafka)
Anything that has real and lasting value is always a gift from within. View quote
Franz Kafka
What am I doing here in this endless winter? View quote
Franz Kafka
It is often safer to be in chains than to be free. View quote
Franz Kafka
Love is a drama of contradictions. View quote
Franz Kafka
I dream of a grave, deep and narrow, where we could clasp each other in our arms as with clamps, and I would hide my face in you and you would hide your face in me, and nobody would ever see us any more. View quote
Franz Kafka
It isn't necessary that you leave home. Sit at your desk and listen. Don't even listen, just wait. Don't wait, be still and alone. The whole world will offer itself to you. View quote
Franz Kafka
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. View quote
Franz Kafka
He was a tool of the boss, without brains or backbone. View quote
Franz Kafka
Logic may indeed be unshakeable, but it cannot withstand a man who is determined to live. View quote
Franz Kafka
All knowledge, the totality of all questions and all answers, is contained in the dog. If one could but realize this knowledge, if one could but bring it into the light of day, if we dogs would but own that we know infinitely more than we admit to ourselves! (Franz Kafka)
One must fight to get to the top, especially if one starts at the bottom. View quote
Franz Kafka
There are two main human sins from which all the others derive: impatience and indolence. It was because of impatience that they were expelled from Paradise; it is because of indolence that they do not return. Yet perhaps there is only one major sin: impatience. Because of impatience they were expelled, because of impatience they do not return. View quote
Franz Kafka
I see, these books are probably law books, and it is an essential part of the justice dispensed here that you should be condemned not only in innocence but also in ignorance. View quote
Franz Kafka
I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us. View quote
Franz Kafka