Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
The speaker feels no shared identity with his ethnic group or himself.
In plain terms
I have nothing in common with Jews or with myself.
What can you take from it?
Identity crises can isolate individuals from community and self.

Where it applies

  • immigrant experience
  • midlife crisis
  • identity politics

Putting it to work

  • explore personal identity
  • seek community belonging

Questions to consider

  • Who defines your identity?
  • How do you relate to your community?

Another view

This is a subjective feeling that may not reflect actual commonalities.

More from Franz Kafka

  1. What does the court want with you? It receives you when you come and it dismisses you when you go.

    Permalink to quote #116
  2. Who has the gift to recognize beauty, will not live long

    Permalink to quote #118
  3. We are sinful not merely because we have eaten of the tree of knowledge, but also because we have not eaten of the tree of life.

    Permalink to quote #115

Related quotes

  1. So you chose not to be part of the bands of children who group together for the sole purpose of excluding others, and people look at you and say, poor girl, sh…

    Orson Scott CardOrson Scott Card quote #75
  2. Why should I be my aunt, or me, or anyone? What similarities boots, hands, the family voice I felt in my throat, or even the National Geographic and those awfu…

    Elizabeth BishopElizabeth Bishop quote #3
  3. She refers to a phenomenon of moviegoing which I have called certification. Nowadays when a person lives somewhere, in a neighborhood, the place is not certifi…

    Walker PercyWalker Percy quote #3