Franz Kafka Quotes - Page 16

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• This perversion of the truth, familiar to the artist though it was, always unnerved him afresh and proved too much for him. What was a consequence of the premature ending of his fast was here presented as the cause of it! To fight against this lack of understanding, against a whole world of nonunderstanding, was impossible.

  Franz Kafka

  Fighting, Artist, Understanding

  Franz Kafka (1979). “The Basic Kafka”, p.85, Simon and Schuster

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• Death confronts us not unlike the historical battle scene that hangs on the wall of the classroom. It is our task to obscure or quite obliterate the picture by our deeds while we are still in this world.

  Franz Kafka

  Death, Wall, Historical

  Franz Kafka (1946). “The great wall of China: stories and reflections”

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• I don't know who the great lawyers are, and I presume you can't get to them. I know of no case where it can be said for certain that they took part. They defend some people, but you can't get them to do that through your own efforts, they only defend the ones they want to defend. But I assume a case they take on must have progressed beyond the lower court. It's better not to think of them at all, otherwise you'll find the consultations with the other lawyers, their advice and their assistance, extremely disgusting and useless.

  Franz Kafka

  Thinking, People, Effort

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• The whole visible world is perhaps nothing more than the rationalization of a man who wants to find peace for a moment.

  Franz Kafka

  Men, World, Want

  Franz Kafka (1979). “The Basic Kafka”, p.170, Simon and Schuster

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• The Messiah will come only when he is no longer necessary, he will come only one day after his arrival, he will not come on the last day, but on the last day of all.

  Franz Kafka

  One Day, Redemption, Lasts

  "The Third Notebook," 4 Dec. 1917 (translation by Ernst Kaiser and Eithne Wilkins)

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• The Expulsion from Paradise is eternal in its principal aspect: this makes it irrevocable, and our living in this world inevitable, but the eternal nature of the process has the effect that not only could we remain forever in Paradise, but that we are currently there, whether we know it or not.

  Franz Kafka

  Forever, World, Paradise

  Franz Kafka (2015). “Aphorisms”, p.64, Schocken

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• Evil is the radiation of the human consciousness in certain transitional positions. It is not actually the sensual world that is amere appearance; what is so is the evil of it, which, admittedly, is what constitutes the sensual world in our eyes.

  Franz Kafka

  Eye, Evil, Sensual

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• Sometimes I'd like to stuff all Jews (myself included) into the drawer of a laundry basket. then open it to see if they've suffocated

  Franz Kafka

  Stuff, Sometimes, Laundry

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• It is strange how little sharpsightedness women possess; they only notice whether they please, then whether they arouse pity, and finally, whether you look for compassion from them. That is all; come to think of it, it may even be enough, generally speaking.

  Franz Kafka

  Women, Compassion, Thinking

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• I hate everything that does not relate to literature, conversations bore me (even if they relate to literature), to visit people bores me, the sorrows and joys of my relatives bore me to the very soul. Conversation takes the importance, the seriousness, the truth, out of everything I think.

  Franz Kafka

  Hate, Thinking, People

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

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• One can disintegrate the world by means of very strong light. For weak eyes the world becomes solid, for still weaker eyes it seems to develop fists, for eyes weaker still it becomes shamefaced and smashes anyone who dares to gaze upon it.

  Franz Kafka

  Strong, Mean, Eye

  Franz Kafka (1954). “Wedding preparations in the country: and other posthumous prose writings. With notes by Max Brod”

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• For everything outside the phenomenal world, language can only be used allusively, but never even approximately in a comparative way, since, corresponding as it does to the phenomenal world, it is concerned only with property and its relations.

  Franz Kafka

  Perception, Way, Doe

  Franz Kafka, Malcolm Pasley (1973). “Shorter works [of] Franz Kafka”, Harvill Secker

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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.

  Franz Kafka

  Law, Names, Judgement

  Franz Kafka (1991). “The Blue Octavo Notebooks”

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• People keep themselves at a tolerable height above an infernal abyss toward which they gravitate only by putting out all their strength and lovingly helping one another. They are tied together by ropes, and it's bad enough when the ropes around an individual loosen and he drops somewhat lower than the others into empty space; ghastly when the ropes break and he falls. That's why we should cling to the others.

  Franz Kafka

  Fall, Space, People

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

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• The existence of the writer is an argument against the existence of the soul, for the soul has obviously taken flight from the real ego, but not improved itself, only become a writer.

  Franz Kafka

  Real, Taken, Ego

  Franz Kafka (2013). “Letters to Friends, Family, and Editors”, p.455, Schocken

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• Art flies around truth, but with the definite intention of not getting burnt. Its capacity lies in finding in the dark void a place where the beam of light can be intensely caught, without this having been perceptible before.

  Franz Kafka

  Art, Lying, Dark

  Franz Kafka (1991). “The Blue Octavo Notebooks”

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• One has just been sent out as a biblical dove, has found nothing green, and slips back into the darkness of the Ark

  Franz Kafka

  Biblical, Darkness, Green

  Franz Kafka, Nahum Norbert Glatzer (1974). “I am a memory come alive: autobiographical writings”, Schocken

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• Two tasks at the beginning of your life: to narrow your orbit more and more, and ever and again to check whether you are not in hiding somewhere outside your orbit.

  Franz Kafka

  Two, Orbit, Tasks

  Franz Kafka (1991). “The Blue Octavo Notebooks”

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• From the true antagonist illimitable courage is transmitted to you.
  To what indifference people may come, to what profound conviction of having lost the right track forever.

  Franz Kafka

  Courage, Adversity, People

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• The old incapacity. Interrupted my writing for barely ten days and already cast out. Once again prodigious efforts stand before me. You have to dive down, as it were, and sink more rapidly than that which sinks in advance of you.

  Franz Kafka

  Writing, Effort, Incapacity

  Franz Kafka (1970). “The Trial”

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• You, who can't do anything, think you can bring off something like that? How can you even dare to think about it? If you were capable of it, you certainly wouldn't be in need of it.

  Franz Kafka

  Suicidal, Thinking, Needs

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• Woman, or more precisely put, perhaps, marriage, is the representative of life with which you are meant to come to terms.

  Franz Kafka

  Literature, Term, Representatives

  Franz Kafka (1991). “The Blue Octavo Notebooks”

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• Going to pieces. To go to pieces so pointlessly and unnecessarily.

  Franz Kafka

  Pieces

  Franz Kafka (1949). “The Diaries of Franz Kafka: 1914-1923. Tr. by Martin Greenberg, with the co-operation of Hannah Arendt”, Schocken

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• I can once more carry on a conversation with myself, and don't stare so into complete emptiness. Only in this way is there any possibility of improvement for me.

  Franz Kafka

  Way, Emptiness, Improvement

  Franz Kafka (1970). “The Trial”

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• It's sometimes quite astonishing that a single, average life is enough to encompass so much that it's at all possible ever to have any success in one's work here.

  Franz Kafka

  Average, Sometimes, Life Is

  Franz Kafka (2016). “Collected Works (Complete Editions: The Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony, The Trial, ...)”, p.175, Franz Kafka

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