15 Franz Kafka Quotes on Kafka

Franz Kafka quotes on kafka

7. All human errors are impatience, the premature breaking off of what is methodical, an apparent fencing in of the apparent thing.

12. One of the first signs of the beginnings of understanding is the wish to die. This life appears unbearable, another unattainable. One is no longer ashamed of wanting to die; one asks to be moved from the old cell, which one hates, to a new one, which one will only in time come to hate.

18. When one has once accepted and absorbed Evil, it no longer demands to be believed.

21. Self-control is something for which I do not strive. Self-control means wanting to be effective at some random point in the infinite radiations of my spiritual existence.

25. The way is infinitely long, nothing of it can be subtracted, nothing can be added, and yet everyone applies his own childish yardstick to it. 'Certainly, this yard of the way you still have to go, too, and it will be accounted unto you.'

28. 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.

37. What is gayer than believing in a household god?

59. This question of yours, Sir, about my being a house painter - or rather, not a question, you simply made a statement - is typical of the whole character of this trial that is being foisted on me. You may object that it is not a trial at all; you are quite right, for it is only a trial if I recognize it as such. But for the moment I do recognize it, on grounds of compassion, as it were. One can't regard it except with compassion, if one is to regard it at all. I do not say that your procedure is contemptible, but I should like to present that epithet to you for your private consumption.

69. (21 November 1917) Variant translation: Anyone who believes cannot experience miracles. By day one cannot see any stars.

70. Religions get lost as people do.

90. I was so insecure about everything that all I was really sure of was what I already held in my hands or my mouth or what was well on its way there.

91. If the French were German in their essence, then how the Germans would admire them!

101. My life is hesitation before birth.

123. Youth is happy because it has the ability to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.

124. The only way Kafka could envisage of creating his in every respect impossible writing possible was to demarcate the area of impossibility by making a language without a particular color, without a local tone, without qualities, as it were.