Franz Kafka Quotes and Sayings
- Name:
- Franz Kafka (random)
- Books & Videos:
- Franz Kafka Books & Videos
- Type:
- Poet
- Nationality:
- Austrian
- Birth Date / Year:
- July 3, 1883
- Death Date / Year:
- June 3, 1924
Similar People: Alfred Edward Housman | William Somerville | Julian Grenfell | Janet Erskine Stuart | ...
- 1
A book must be the ax for the frozen sea within us. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 2
A book should serve as the ax for the frozen sea within us. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 3
A first sign of the beginning of understanding is the wish to die. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 4
A man of action forced into a state of thought is unhappy until he can get out of it. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 5
A stair not worn hollow by footsteps is, regarded from its own point of view, only a boring something made of wood. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 6
Always first draw fresh breath after outbursts of vanity and complacency. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 7
Anyone who cannot come to terms with his life while he is alive needs one hand to ward off a little his despair over his fate... but with his other hand he can note down what he sees among the ruins. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 8
Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 9
Association with human beings lures one into self-observation. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 10
Atlas was permitted the opinion that he was at liberty, if he wished, to drop the Earth and creep away; but this opinion was all that he was permitted. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 11
Believing in progress does not mean believing that any progress has yet been made. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 12
By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 13
By imposing too great a responsibility, or rather, all responsibility, on yourself, you crush yourself. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 14
Don Quixote's misfortune is not his imagination, but Sancho Panza. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 15
Don't despair, not even over the fact that you don't despair. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 16
Dread of night. Dread of not-night. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 17
Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 18
Evil is whatever distracts. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 19
From a certain point onward there is no longer any turning back. That is the point that must be reached. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 20
God gives the nuts, but he does not crack them. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 21
He who seeks does not find, but he who does not seek will be found. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 22
Heaven is dumb, echoing only the dumb. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 23
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. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 24
Hiding places there are innumerable, escape is only one, but possibilities of escape, again, are as many as hiding places. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 25
How can one take delight in the world unless one flees to it for refuge? Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 26
How pathetically scanty my self-knowledge is compared with, say, my knowledge of my room. There is no such thing as observation of the inner world, as there is of the outer world. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 27
I do not read advertisements. I would spend all of my time wanting things. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 28
I have the true feeling of myself only when I am unbearably unhappy. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 29
Idleness is the beginning of all vice, the crown of all virtues. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 30
If I shall exist eternally, how shall I exist tomorrow? Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 31
If it had been possible to build the Tower of Babel without climbing it, it would have been permitted. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 32
If there is a transmigration of souls then I am not yet on the bottom rung. My life is a hesitation before birth. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 33
In a certain sense the Good is comfortless. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 34
In argument similes are like songs in love; they describe much, but prove nothing. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 35
In the fight between you and the world, back the world. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 36
In the struggle between yourself and the world second the world. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 37
In theory there is a possibility of perfect happiness: To believe in the indestructible element within one, and not to strive towards it. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 38
It is comforting to reflect that the disproportion of things in the world seems to be only arithmetical. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 39
It is not necessary that you leave the house. Remain at your table and listen. Do not even listen, only wait. Do not even wait, be wholly still and alone. The world will present itself to you for its unmasking, it can do no other, in ecstasy it will writhe at your feet. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 40
It is often safer to be in chains than to be free. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 41
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. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 42
Let me remind you of the old maxim: people under suspicion are better moving than at rest, since at rest they may be sitting in the balance without knowing it, being weighed together with their sins. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 43
Martyrs do not underrate the body, they allow it to be elevated on the cross. In this they are at one with their antagonists. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 44
May I kiss you then? On this miserable paper? I might as well open the window and kiss the night air. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 45
My "fear" is my substance, and probably the best part of me. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 46
My guiding principle is this: Guilt is never to be doubted. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 47
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. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 48
No sooner said than done - so acts your man of worth. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 49
Not everyone can see the truth, but he can be it. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 50
One advantage in keeping a diary is that you become aware with reassuring clarity of the changes which you constantly suffer. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 51
One must not cheat anyone, not even the world of its victory. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 52
One of the first signs of the beginning of understanding is the wish to die. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 53
One tells as few lies as possible only by telling as few lies as possible, and not by having the least possible opportunity to do so. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 54
Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 55
Religions get lost as people do. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 56
Self-control means wanting to be effective at some random point in the infinite radiations of my spiritual existence. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 57
Sensual love deceives one as to the nature of heavenly love; it could not do so alone, but since it unconsciously has the element of heavenly love within it, it can do so. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 58
So long as you have food in your mouth, you have solved all questions for the time being. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 59
Start with what is right rather than what is acceptable. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 60
Suffering is the positive element in this world, indeed it is the only link between this world and the positive. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 61
Test yourself on mankind. It is something that makes the doubter doubt, the believer believe. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 62
The Bible is a sanctum; the world, sputum. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 63
The decisive moment in human evolution is perpetual. That is why the revolutionary spiritual movements that declare all former things worthless are in the right, for nothing has yet happened. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 64
The experience of life consists of the experience which the spirit has of itself in matter and as matter, in mind and as mind, in emotion, as emotion, etc. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 65
The fact that our task is exactly commensurate with our life gives it the appearance of being infinite. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 66
The history of mankind is the instant between two strides taken by a traveler. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 67
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. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 68
The mediation by the serpent was necessary. Evil can seduce man, but cannot become man. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 69
The relationship to one's fellow man is the relationship of prayer, the relationship to oneself is the relationship of striving; it is from prayer that one draws the strength for one's striving. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 70
The spirit becomes free only when it ceases to be a support. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 71
The thornbush is the old obstacle in the road. It must catch fire if you want to go further. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 72
There are only two things. Truth and lies. Truth is indivisible, hence it cannot recognize itself; anyone who wants to recognize it has to be a lie. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 73
There is nothing besides a spiritual world; what we call the world of the senses is the Evil in the spiritual world, and what we call Evil is only the necessity of a moment in our eternal evolution. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 74
Tyranny or slavery, born of selfishness, are the two educational methods of parents; all gradations of tyranny or slavery. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 75
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. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 76
We are separated from God on two sides; the Fall separates us from Him, the Tree of Life separates Him from us. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 77
We are sinful not only because we have eaten of the Tree of Knowledge, but also because we have not yet eaten of the Tree of Life. The state in which we are is sinful, irrespective of guilt. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 78
Woman, or more precisely put, perhaps, marriage, is the representative of life with which you are meant to come to terms. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 79
Writers speak stench. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 80
You can hold yourself back from the sufferings of the world, that is something you are free to do and it accords with your nature, but perhaps this very holding back is the one suffering you could avoid. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 81
You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
- 82
Youth is happy because it has the ability to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old. Franz Kafka | Refcard PDF ↑
