Franz Kafka quotes - page 8

There are questions we could not get past if we were not set free from them by our very nature. (Franz Kafka)
Two possibilities: making oneself infinitely small or being so. The second is perfection, that is to say, inactivity, the first is beginning, that is to say, action. View quote
Franz Kafka
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. View quote
Franz Kafka
To animalise is humane, to humanise is animal. View quote
Franz Kafka
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. View quote
Franz Kafka
A stair not worn hollow by footsteps is, regarded from its own point of view, only a boring something made of wood. View quote
Franz Kafka
April 27. Incapable of living with people, of speaking. Complete immersion in myself, thinking of myself. Apathetic, witless, fearful. I have nothing to say to anyone - never. View quote
Franz Kafka
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. View quote
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? View quote
Franz Kafka
In a way, I was safe writing. View quote
Franz Kafka
I am too tired, I must try to rest and sleep, otherwise I am lost in every respect. What an effort to keep alive! Erecting a monument does not require an expenditure of so much strength. (Franz Kafka)
Every word first looks around in every direction before letting itself be written down by me. View quote
Franz Kafka
How can one take delight in the world unless one flees to it for refuge? View quote
Franz Kafka
They did not know what we can now guess at, contemplating the course of history: that change begins in the soul before it appears in ordinary existence. View quote
Franz Kafka
Hiding places there are innumerable, escape is only one, but possibilities of escape, again, are as many as hiding places. View quote
Franz Kafka
What is gayer than believing in a household god? View quote
Franz Kafka
It is comforting to reflect that the disproportion of things in the world seems to be only arithmetical. View quote
Franz Kafka
Some deny the existence of misery by pointing to the sun; he denies the existence of the sun by pointing to misery. View quote
Franz Kafka
One advantage in keeping a diary is that you become aware with reassuring clarity of the changes which you constantly suffer. View quote
Franz Kafka
For we are like tree trunks in the snow. In appearance they lie smoothly and a little push should be enough to set them rolling. No, it can't be done, for they are firmly wedded to the ground. But see, even that is only appearance. View quote
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. (Franz Kafka)
The ulterior motives with which you absorb and assimilate Evil are not your own but those of Evil. View quote
Franz Kafka
The fact that there is nothing but a spiritual world deprives us of hope and gives us certainty. View quote
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. View quote
Franz Kafka
Why do we complain about the Fall? It is not on its account that we were expelled from Paradise, but on account of the Tree of Life, lest we might eat of it. View quote
Franz Kafka