Franz Kafka - The Trial

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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
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
It requires enormous presence of mind or rather quickness of wit, when opening your eyes to seize hold as it were of everything in the room at exactly the same place where you had let it go on the previous evening. That is why the moment of waking up was the riskiest moment of the day. Once that was well over without deflecting you from your orbit, you could take heart of grace for the rest of the day.

Franz Kafka
This noble body, equipped with everything necessary, almost to the point of bursting, also appeared to carry freedom around with it.

Franz Kafka
April 27. Incapable of living with people, of speaking. Complete immersion in myself, thinking of myself. Apathetic, witless, fearful. I have nothing to say to anyone - never.

Franz Kafka
No," said the priest, "you don't need to accept everything as true, you only have to accept it as necessary." "Depressing view," said K. "The lie made into the rule of the world.

Franz Kafka
"Like a dog!" he said, it was as if the shame of it should outlive him.

Franz Kafka
Logic may indeed be unshakeable, but it cannot withstand a man who is determined to live. Where was the judge he had never seen? Where was the High Court he had never reached? He raised his hands and spread out all his fingers. But the hands of one of the men closed round his throat, just as the other drove the knife deep into his heart and turned it twice.

Franz Kafka
Even that has its reason; it is often better to be in chains than to be free.

Franz Kafka
What an obstacle had suddenly arisen to block K.'s career! And this was the moment when he was supposed to work for the bank? He looked down at his desk. This the time to interview clients and negotiate with them? While his case was unfolding itself, while up in the attics the Court officials were poring over the charge papers, was he to devote his attention to the affairs of the bank? It looked like a kind of torture sanctioned by the Court, arising from his case and concomitant with it.

Franz Kafka
Someone must have traduced Joseph K., for without having done anything wrong he was arrested one fine morning.

Franz Kafka
Someone must have been telling lies about Joseph K., for without having done anything wrong he was arrested one fine morning. His landlady's cook, who always brought him his breakfast at eight o'clock, failed to appear on this occasion. That had never happened before.

Franz Kafka
It's often safer to be in chains than to be free.

Franz Kafka
'It is not necessary to accept everything as true, we must only accept it as necessary.'
'A melancholy conclusion…It turns lying into a universal principle.'

Franz Kafka
"Like a dog!" he said. It seemed as if his shame would live on after him.

Franz Kafka
You're not cross with me, though?" he said. She pulled her hand away and answered, "No, no, I'm never cross with anyone.

Franz Kafka
It's only because of their stupidity that they're able to be so sure of themselves.

Franz Kafka
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
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.

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

Franz Kafka
This question of yours, Sir, about my being a house painter — or rather, not a question, you simply made a statement — is typical of the whole character of this trial that is being foisted on me. You may object that it is not a trial at all; you are quite right, for it is only a trial if I recognize it as such. But for the moment I do recognize it, on grounds of compassion, as it were. One can't regard it except with compassion, if one is to regard it at all. I do not say that your procedure is contemptible, but I should like to present that epithet to you for your private consumption.

Franz Kafka
Someone must have slandered Josef K., for one morning, without having done anything truly wrong, he was arrested.

Franz Kafka