Franz Kafka's Quotes

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.

Suffering is the positive element in this world, indeed it is the only link between this world and the positive.

Test yourself on mankind. It is something that makes the doubter doubt, the believer believe.

The spirit becomes free only when it ceases to be a support.

Tyranny or slavery, born of selfishness, are the two educational methods of parents; all gradations of tyranny or slavery.

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.

Don't despair, not even over the fact that you don't despair.

Dread of night. Dread of not-night.

Heaven is dumb, echoing only the dumb.

Hiding places there are innumerable, escape is only one, but possibilities of escape, again, are as many as hiding places.

Idleness is the beginning of all vice, the crown of all virtues.

If it had been possible to build the Tower of Babel without climbing it, it would have been permitted.

If there is a transmigration of souls then I am not yet on the bottom rung. My life is a hesitation before birth.

In a certain sense the Good is comfortless.

Martyrs do not underrate the body, they allow it to be elevated on the cross. In this they are at one with their antagonists.

No sooner said than done - so acts your man of worth.

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

The Bible is a sanctum; the world, sputum.

The fact that our task is exactly commensurate with our life gives it the appearance of being infinite.

The history of mankind is the instant between two strides taken by a traveler.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.

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

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.

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

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.

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

A book must be the ax for the frozen sea within us.

I do not read advertisements. I would spend all of my time wanting things.

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

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

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

God gives the nuts, but he does not crack them.

By imposing too great a responsibility, or rather, all responsibility, on yourself, you crush yourself.

A book should serve as the ax for the frozen sea within us.

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

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.

Start with what is right rather than what is acceptable.

Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before.

Believing in progress does not mean believing that any progress has yet been made.

Don Quixote's misfortune is not his imagination, but Sancho Panza.

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

Self-control means wanting to be effective at some random point in the infinite radiations of my spiritual existence.

Always first draw fresh breath after outbursts of vanity and complacency.

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.

We cannot turn the clock back nor can we undo the harm caused, but we have the power to determine the future and to ensure that what happened never happens again.

Let no one think that flexibility and a predisposition to compromise is a sign of weakness or a sell-out.

In Africa today, we recognise that trade and investment, and not aid, are pillars of development.

There is a need to take advantage of the change that has taken place in the Congo, however tragic that has been in its coming.

There are some who are scared by unity and by building a country on the basis of ideas.

You kept quiet... When these victims wanted your help to survive, you kept quiet.

Such problems are not solved in one day but there is a great step toward peace and security in the region.