Franz Kafka Quotes
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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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My guiding principle is this: Guilt is never to be doubted.
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Association with human beings lures one into self-observation.
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In theory there is a possibility of perfect happiness: To believe in the indestructible element within one, and not to strive towards it.
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We live in an age which is so possessed by demons, that soon we shall only be able to do goodness and justice in the deepest secrecy, as if it were a crime.
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You are at once both the quiet and the confusion of my heart.
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I carry the bars within me.
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It is only our conception of time that makes us call the Last Judgement by this name. It is, in fact, a kind of martial law.
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A book should serve as the ax for the frozen sea within us.
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Heaven is dumb, echoing only the dumb.
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Leopards break into the temple and drink to the dregs what is in the sacrificial pitchers; this is repeated over and over again; finally it can be calculated in advance, and it becomes a part of the ceremony.
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Do not waste your time looking for an obstacle - maybe there is none.
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I write differently from what I speak, I speak differently from what I think, I think differently from the way I ought to think, and so it all proceeds into deepest darkness.
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The truth is always an abyss.
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In the fight between you and the world, back the world.
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Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before.
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So long as you have food in your mouth, you have solved all questions for the time being.
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Many a book is like a key to unknown chambers within the castle of one’s own self.
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From a certain point onward there is no longer any turning back. That is the point that must be reached.
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Should I be grateful or should I curse the fact that despite all misfortune I can still feel love, an unearthly love but still for earthly objects.
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Art is for the artist is only suffering through which he releases himself for further suffering.
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I am a cage, in search of a bird.
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We all have wings, but they have not been of any avail to us and if we could tear them off, we would do so.
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The indestructible is one: it is each individual human being and, at the same time, it is common to all, hence the incomparably indivisible union that exists between human beings.