Franz Kafka Quotes

220 Sourced Quotes

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
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
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
Now the Sirens have a still more fatal weapon than their song, namely their silence... Someone might possibly have escaped from their singing; but from their silence, certainly never.

Franz Kafka
The door could not be heard slamming; they had probably left it open, as is the custom in homes where a great misfortune has occurred.

Franz Kafka
In the struggle between yourself and the world, second the world.

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

Franz Kafka
It would have been so pointless to kill himself that, even if he had wanted to, the pointlessness would have made him unable.

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

Franz Kafka
What have I in common with Jews? I have almost nothing in common with myself and should stand very quietly in a corner, content that I can breathe.

Franz Kafka
A first sign of the beginning of knowledge is the wish to die.

Franz Kafka
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
Hold fast to the diary from today on! Write regularly! Don't surrender! Even if no salvation should come, I want to be worthy of it every moment.

Franz Kafka
Association with human beings lures one into self-observation.

Franz Kafka
Two possibilities: making oneself infinitely small or being so. The second is perfection, that is to say, inactivity, the first is beginning, that is to say, action.

Franz Kafka
The thornbush is old obstacle in the road. It must catch fire if you want to go further.

Franz Kafka
When Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.

Franz Kafka
Every one of us has a bad conscience, which he tries to escape by going to sleep as quickly as possible.

Franz Kafka
No one else could ever be admitted here, since this gate was made only for you. I am now going to shut it.

Franz Kafka
Anyone who loves his neighbor within the limits of the world is doing no more and no less injustice than someone who loves himself within the limits of the world.

Franz Kafka