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Franz Kafka [1883-1924] German

Rank: 4
Novelist, Writer

Franz Kafka was a German-language writer of novels and short stories who is widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature.

Alone, Beauty, Knowledge, Nature, Truth, Best, Brainy, Experience, Fear, Food, God, Happiness, History, Imagination, Marriage, Positive, Relationship, Strength, Wisdom

Quote	Tags	Rank
Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy.		101
Start with what is right rather than what is acceptable.	Wisdom	102
Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.	Beauty	103
Believing in progress does not mean believing that any progress has yet been made.		104
My 'fear' is my substance, and probably the best part of me.	Best, Fear	105
A stair not worn hollow by footsteps is, regarded from its own point of view, only a boring something made of wood.		106
A book should serve as the ax for the frozen sea within us.		107
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.		108
From a certain point onward there is no longer any turning back. That is the point that must be reached.		109
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.	Nature	110
A first sign of the beginning of understanding is the wish to die.		111
Youth is happy because it has the ability to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.	Beauty	112
God gives the nuts, but he does not crack them.	Brainy, God	113
So long as you have food in your mouth, you have solved all questions for the time being.	Food	114
If it had been possible to build the Tower of Babel without climbing it, it would have been permitted.		115
Always first draw fresh breath after outbursts of vanity and complacency.		116
Self-control means wanting to be effective at some random point in the infinite radiations of my spiritual existence.		117
The history of mankind is the instant between two strides taken by a traveler.	History	118
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.		119
One advantage in keeping a diary is that you become aware with reassuring clarity of the changes which you constantly suffer.		120
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.	Alone, Nature	121
A book must be the ax for the frozen sea within us.		122
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.	Knowledge	123
If I shall exist eternally, how shall I exist tomorrow?		124
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.	Experience	125
By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired.		126
May I kiss you then? On this miserable paper? I might as well open the window and kiss the night air.		201
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.		202
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.		203
If there is a transmigration of souls then I am not yet on the bottom rung. My life is a hesitation before birth.		204
It is often safer to be in chains than to be free.		205
The mediation by the serpent was necessary. Evil can seduce man, but cannot become man.		206
The thornbush is the old obstacle in the road. It must catch fire if you want to go further.		207
We are separated from God on two sides; the Fall separates us from Him, the Tree of Life separates Him from us.		208
Test yourself on mankind. It is something that makes the doubter doubt, the believer believe.		209
Dread of night. Dread of not-night.		210
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.		211
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.	Truth	212
Hiding places there are innumerable, escape is only one, but possibilities of escape, again, are as many as hiding places.		213
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.	Knowledge	214
Martyrs do not underrate the body, they allow it to be elevated on the cross. In this they are at one with their antagonists.		215
Not everyone can see the truth, but he can be it.	Truth	216
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.		217
I do not read advertisements. I would spend all of my time wanting things.		218
Evil is whatever distracts.		219
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.	Alone	220
I have the true feeling of myself only when I am unbearably unhappy.		221
By imposing too great a responsibility, or rather, all responsibility, on yourself, you crush yourself.		222
One of the first signs of the beginning of understanding is the wish to die.		223
The spirit becomes free only when it ceases to be a support.		224
One must not cheat anyone, not even the world of its victory.		225
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.		226
In theory there is a possibility of perfect happiness: To believe in the indestructible element within one, and not to strive towards it.	Happiness	301
Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before.		302
Heaven is dumb, echoing only the dumb.		303
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.		304
A man of action forced into a state of thought is unhappy until he can get out of it.		305
In argument similes are like songs in love; they describe much, but prove nothing.		306
Don't despair, not even over the fact that you don't despair.		307
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.		308
Woman, or more precisely put, perhaps, marriage, is the representative of life with which you are meant to come to terms.	Marriage	309
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.		310
Association with human beings lures one into self-observation.		311
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.		312
No sooner said than done - so acts your man of worth.		313
In the fight between you and the world, back the world.		314
My guiding principle is this: Guilt is never to be doubted.		315
How can one take delight in the world unless one flees to it for refuge?		316
Suffering is the positive element in this world, indeed it is the only link between this world and the positive.	Positive	317
It is comforting to reflect that the disproportion of things in the world seems to be only arithmetical.		318
He who seeks does not find, but he who does not seek will be found.		319
Idleness is the beginning of all vice, the crown of all virtues.		320
In the struggle between yourself and the world second the world.		321
The fact that our task is exactly commensurate with our life gives it the appearance of being infinite.		322
Writers speak stench.		323
In a certain sense the Good is comfortless.		324
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.		325
Don Quixote's misfortune is not his imagination, but Sancho Panza.	Imagination	326
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.	Relationship, Strength	401
Tyranny or slavery, born of selfishness, are the two educational methods of parents; all gradations of tyranny or slavery.		402
The Bible is a sanctum; the world, sputum.		403
Religions get lost as people do.		404

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