Franz Kafka Quotes

Logic may indeed be unshakeable, but it cannot withstand a man who is determined to live

The chains which keep you from being free are the chains you have placed upon yourself

A first sign of the beginning of understanding is the wish to die

Start with what is right rather than what is acceptable

You are free, and that is why you are lost

The meaning of life is that it stops

All things one has forgotten scream for help in dreams

I am free and that is why I am lost

All of our misfortunes come from not being able to remain in our room

There are two cardinal sins from which all others spring: impatience and laziness

It’s only because of their stupidity that they’re able to be so sure of themselves

But I'm not in the world to write, I'm here to be mad

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

There is hope, but not for us

So long as you have food in your mouth, you have solved all questions for the time being

Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old

We are as forlorn as children lost in the woods

In the fight between you and the world, back the world

One must not cheat anyone, not even the world of its victory

I am made of literature; I am nothing else and cannot be anything else

Association with human beings lures one into self-observation

How pathetically scanty my self-knowledge is compared with, say, my knowledge of my room

He who seeks does not find, but he who does not seek will be found

It is not necessary to accept everything as true, one must only accept it as necessary

My 'education' has done me great harm in some respects

I have the true feeling of myself only when I am unbearably unhappy

You are at once both the quiet and the confusion of my heart. Imagine my heartbeat when you are in this state

A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us

Don't bend; don't water it down; don't try to make it logical; don't edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly

My guiding principle is this: Guilt is never to be doubted

A man cannot live without a permanent trust in something indestructible within himself

A belief is like a guillotine, just as heavy, just as light

Writing is a form of prayer

I am a memory come alive, like a corpse that begins to wander about as soon as the grave opens

I am separated from all things by a hollow space, and I do not even reach to its boundaries

From a certain point onward there is no longer any turning back. That is the point that must be reached

I have spent my life resisting the desire to finish it

Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy

By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired

I have spent all my life resisting the desire to end it

Writing is a deeper sleep than death. Just as one would never wish to wake from it, once having experienced it

All language is but a poor translation

The metamorphosis of the world occurs for the most part without noise

From a certain point onward there is no longer any turning back. That is the point that must be reached

It was very difficult to breathe in the attic, impossible to stretch out comfortably, and now he was not allowed to leave at all, even at night

One of the first signs of the beginning of understanding is the wish to die

Man cannot live without a continuous confidence in something indestructible within him; though both the indestructible and the confidence may remain permanently concealed from him

I have hardly anything in common with myself

All knowledge, the totality of all questions and answers, is contained in the dog

All we need is a sheet of paper and something to write with, and then we can turn the world upside down

I have hardly anything in common with myself and should stand very quietly in a corner, content that I can breathe

I have spent all my life resisting the desire to end it

Logic may indeed be unshakeable, but it cannot withstand a man who is determined to live

I have the true feeling of myself only when I am unbearably unhappy

They were alarmed at the sight of him, but he was more alarmed than they

I can love only what I can place so high above me that I cannot reach it

Paths are made by walking

He who seeks does not find, but he who does not seek will be found

All human errors are impatience, a premature breaking off of methodical procedure, an apparent fencing in of what is apparently at issue

He is terribly afraid of dying because he hasn't yet lived

It is often safer to be in chains than to be free

If you find someone who makes you smile, who checks up on you often to see if you’re okay, who watches out for you and wants the very best for you, don’t let them go. Keep them close and don’t take them for granted. People like that are hard to find

Faith, like a guillotine. As heavy, as light

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

Belief means liberating the indestructible element in oneself, or, more accurately, liberating oneself, or, more accurately, being indestructible, or, more accurately, being

Youth is happy because it has the capacity to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old

In man’s struggle against the world, bet on the world

Sleep is the most innocent creature there is and a sleepless man the most guilty

I do not know if I am happy as I am. But that must be happiness

I have only one request: that I be allowed to meet my end in my own way

I am a cage, in search of a bird

If it had been possible, I would have had myself born into a world in which the law ruled, in which nothing but the law ruled

Sleep is the most innocent creature there is and a sleepless man the most guilty

How could I possibly be afraid of a hat?

The right understanding of any matter and a misunderstanding of the same matter do not wholly exclude each other

All knowledge, the totality of all questions and answers, is contained in the dog

One of the first signs of the beginning of understanding is the wish to die

The mediation between head and hands must be the heart

A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us

He thought of how easy it is to find oneself guilty