Franz Kafka Quotes on Belief
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Martyrs do not underrate the body, they allow it to be elevated on the cross. In this they are at one with their antagonists.
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Previously I did not understand why I got no answer to my question; today I do not understand how I could believe I was capable of asking. But I didn't really believe, I only asked.
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Believing in progress does not mean believing that any progress has yet been made. That is not the sort of belief that indicates real faith.
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Man cannot live without a permanent trust in something indestructible in himself, though both the indestructible element and the trust may remain permanently hidden from him. One of the ways in which this hiddenness can express itself is through faith in a personal god.
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What is gayer than believing in a household god?
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Theoretically there is a perfect possibility of happiness: believing in the indestructible element in oneself and not striving towards it.
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If what was supposed to have been destroyed in Paradise was destructible, then it was not decisive; but if it was indestructible, then we are living in a false belief.
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Test yourself on mankind. It is something that makes the doubter doubt, the believer believe.
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A belief is like a guillotine, just as heavy, just as light.
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There can be knowledge of the diabolical, but no belief in it, for more of the diabolical than there is does not exist.
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Anyone who believes cannot experience miracles. By day one does not see any stars. Anyone who does miracles says: I cannot let go of the earth.
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(21 November 1917) Variant translation: Anyone who believes cannot experience miracles. By day one cannot see any stars.