Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
We can understand evil as a concept but cannot believe in a supernatural force beyond its actual existence.
In plain terms
You can know about evil but not believe in more than what is real.
What can you take from it?
Limit belief in evil to what is actually present.

Where it applies

  • theological debate
  • psychological assessment
  • moral philosophy

Putting it to work

  • ground moral discussions in reality
  • avoid supernatural exaggeration

Questions to consider

  • Can you know something without believing it?
  • How much evil do you accept as real?

Another view

It ignores the psychological impact of belief in evil.

More from Franz Kafka

  1. The first worship of idols was certainly fear of the things in the world, but, connected with this, fear of the necessity of the things, and, connected with th…

    Permalink to quote #53
  2. We too must suffer all the suffering around us. We all have not one body, but we have one way of growing, and this leads us through all anguish, whether in thi…

    Permalink to quote #55
  3. Towards the avoidance of a piece of verbal confusion: What is intended to be actively destroyed must first of all have been firmly grasped; what crumbles away …

    Permalink to quote #52

Related quotes

  1. Ex umbris et imaginibus in vertitatem!

    John Henry Cardinal NewmanJohn Henry Cardinal Newman quote #9
  2. The only certainty is that nothing is certain.

    Pliny the ElderPliny the Elder quote #3
  3. There is nothing impossible in the existence of the supernatural: its existence seems to me decidedly probable.

    George SantayanaGeorge Santayana quote #5