51 quotes
I can prove at any time that my education tried to make another person out of me than the one I became.
The Diaries of Franz Kafka 1910-1923 (1948)
If you only followed the parables you yourselves would become parables and with that rid of all your daily cares.
The Complete Stories (1971)
Plenty of hope — for God — no end of hope — only not for us.
In conversation with Max Brod (1920)
What an obstacle had suddenly arisen to block K.'s career!
The Trial (1920)
Logic may indeed be unshakeable, but it cannot withstand a man who is determined to live.
The Trial (1920)
What is meant by its nature for the highest and the best, spreads among the lowly people.
Franz Kafka: A Biography (1960)
It is entirely conceivable that life’s splendour forever lies in wait about each one of us in all its fullness, but veiled from view, deep down, invisible, far off.
The Diaries of Franz Kafka 1910-1923 (1948)
To fight against this lack of understanding, against a whole world of non-understanding, was impossible.
The Complete Stories (1971)
As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into an enormous insect.
The Metamorphosis (1915)
Now the Sirens have a still more fatal weapon than their song, namely their silence... Someone might possibly have escaped from their singing; but from their silence, certainly never.
I make of my reproach and laughter a drumbeat sounding in the world beyond.
The Diaries of Franz Kafka 1910-1923 (1948)
Even that has its reason; it is often better to be in chains than to be free.
The Trial (1920)
It would have been so pointless to kill himself that, even if he had wanted to, the pointlessness would have made him unable.
The Trial (1920)
One must not cheat anyone, not even the world of its victory.
The history of mankind is the instant between two strides taken by a traveler.
The Blue Octavo Notebooks (1954)
If you summon it by the right word, by its right name, it will come. This is the essence of magic, which does not create but summons.
The Diaries of Franz Kafka 1910-1923 (1948)
Now at last I can look at you in peace, I don't eat you anymore.
Franz Kafka: A Biography (1960)
They're talking about things of which they don't have the slightest understanding, anyway. It's only because of their stupidity that they're able to be so sure of themselves.
The Trial (1920)
Ours is a lost generation, it may be, but it is more blameless than those earlier generations.
The Complete Stories (1971)
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.
The Blue Octavo Notebooks (1954)