Franz Kafka Quotes
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Believing in progress does not mean believing that any progress has yet been made.
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When . . . some leisurely passer-by stopped . . . and spoke of cheating, that was in its way the stupidest lie ever invented by indifference and inborn malice, since it was not the hunger artist who was cheating, he was working honestly, but the world was cheating him of his reward.
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Don't despair, not even over the fact that you don't despair.
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All language is but a poor translation.
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My peers, lately, have found companionship through means of intoxication - it makes them sociable. I, however, cannot force myself to use drugs to cheat on my loneliness - it is all that I have - and when the drugs and alcohol dissipate, will be all that my peers have as well.
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The fact that our task is exactly commensurate with our life gives it the appearance of being infinite.
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If it had been possible to build the Tower of Babel without climbing it, it would have been permitted.
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Hesitation before birth. If there is a transmigration of souls then I am not yet on the bottom rung. My life is a hesitation before birth.
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Being alone has a power over me that never fails. My interior dissolves (for the time being only superficially) and is ready to release what lies deeper. When I am willfully alone, a slight ordering of my interior begins to take place and I need nothing more.
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You can choose to be free , but it's last decision you'll ever make.
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Simply wait, be quiet, still The world will freely offer itself to you.
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Writers speak stench.
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Always first draw fresh breath after outbursts of vanity and complacency.
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The ulterior motives with which you absorb and assimilate Evil are not your own but those of Evil. The animal wrests the whip from its master and whips itself in order to become master, not knowing that this is only a fantasy produced by a new knot in the master’s whiplash.
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Not everyone can see the truth, but he can be it.
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Last night I dreamed about you. What happened in detail I can hardly remember, all I know is that we kept merging into one another. I was you, you were me. Finally you somehow caught fire.
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If a man has his eyes bound, you can encourage him as much as you like to stare through the bandage, but he'll never see anything
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God gives the nuts, but he does not crack them.
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In a way, you are poetry material; You are full of cloudy subtleties I am willing to spend a lifetime figuring out. Words burst in your essence and you carry their dust in the pores of your ethereal individuality.
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Der Mensch kann nicht leben ohne ein dauerndes Vertrauen zu etwas Unzerstörbarem in sich, wobei sowohl das Unzerstörbare als auch das Vertrauen ihm dauernd verborgen bleiben können. Eine der Ausdrucksmöglichkeiten dieses Verborgen-Bleibens ist der Glaube an einen persönlichen Gott.
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I have the true feeling of myself only when I am unbearably unhappy.
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I do not see the world at all; I invent it.
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If you find someone who makes you smile, who checks up on you often to see if you're okay. Who watches out or you and wants the best for you. Who loves and respects you. Don't let them go. People like that are hard to find.
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Nothing is as deceptive as a photograph.