Franz Kafka Quotes About Books

Quotes about: Books

• Many a book is like a key to unknown chambers within the castle of one’s own self.

  Franz Kafka

  Inspirational, Book, Reading

  "Readers recommend: songs about books" by Peter Kimpton, www.theguardian.com. June 18, 2015.

• I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us.

  Franz Kafka

  Book, Writing, Thinking

  Franz Kafka (1979). “The Basic Kafka”, p.290, Simon and Schuster

• A book must be an ice-axe to break the seas frozen inside our soul.

  Franz Kafka

  Book, Reading, Ice

• Books are a narcotic.

  Franz Kafka

  Book, Health, Narcotics

• A book must be the ax for the frozen sea within us.

  Franz Kafka

  Book, Sea, Library

  Letter to Oskar Pollak, 27 Jan. 1904

• We need the books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us.

  Franz Kafka

  Suicide, Book, Grieving

  Franz Kafka (1979). “The Basic Kafka”, p.290, Simon and Schuster

• Some books seem like a key to unfamiliar rooms in one’s own castle.

  Franz Kafka

  Book, Keys, Castles

  Franz Kafka (2013). “Letters to Friends, Family, and Editors”, p.23, Schocken

• I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us. If the book we are reading doesn't wake us up with a blow on the head, what are we reading it for?

  Franz Kafka

  Book, Reading, Blow

  Franz Kafka (1979). “The Basic Kafka”, p.290, Simon and Schuster

• . . . The books we need are the kind that act upon us like a misfortune, that make us suffer like the death of someone we love more than ourselves, that make us feel as though we were on the verge of suicide, or lost in a forest remote from all human habitation-a book should serve as an axe for the frozen sea within us.

  Franz Kafka

  Suicide, Book, Suicidal

  Franz Kafka (1993). “Selected Short Stories of Franz Kafka”

• A book should serve as an axe to the ice inside us.

  Franz Kafka

  Book, Ice, Should

• If the book we are reading does not wake us, as with a fist hammering on our skull, why then do we read it?

  Franz Kafka

  Book, Reading, Skulls

• I see, these books are probably law books, and it is an essential part of the justice dispensed here that you should be condemned not only in innocence but also in ignorance.

  Franz Kafka

  Book, Ignorance, Law

  Franz Kafka (1983). “The Penguin complete novels of Franz Kafka”

• We need the books that affect us like a disaster

  Franz Kafka

  Book, Needs, Disaster

  Franz Kafka (1979). “The Basic Kafka”, p.290, Simon and Schuster

• If the book we are reading does not wake us, as with a fist hammering on our skull, why then do we read? So that it shall make us happy? Good God, we should also be happy if we had no books, and such books as make us happy we could, if need be, write ourselves. But what we must have are those books which come upon us like ill fortune, and distress us deeply, like the death of one we love better than ourselves; like suicide. A book must be an ice-axe to break the sea frozen inside us.

  Franz Kafka

  Happiness, Suicide, Book

• I believe that we should read only those books that bite and sting us. If a book we are reading does not rouse us with a blow to the head, then why read it?

  Franz Kafka

  Believe, Book, Blow

  "I am a memory come alive: autobiographical writings".

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin