Franz Kafka
- Country : Germany
- Profession :Insurance Officer, Factory Manager, Novelist, Short Story Writer
- DOB: 1833-07-03
Franz Kafka (1883-1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian writer known for his profound and surreal literary works. Born in Prague, part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Czech Republic), he worked as a lawyer and insurance clerk. His writing, marked by themes of alienation and absurdity, has had a lasting impact on literature. Notable works include “The Metamorphosis” and “The Trial.” Although his writing was largely unrecognized during his lifetime, Kafka’s posthumous publications, thanks to his friend Max Brod, cemented his reputation as a literary giant. His exploration of the human condition and the complexities of modern society continues to captivate readers.
My soul has painted like the wings of butterflies, Fairy tales of yesterday will grow but never die, I can fly, my friends.
Author: Franz KafkaSo then you’re free?’ ‘Yes, I’m free,’ said Karl, and nothing seemed more worthless than his freedom.
Author: Franz Kafka
All knowledge, the totality of all questions and answers, is contained in the dog.
Author: Franz Kafka
It certainly was not my intention to make you suffer, yet i have done so; obviously it never will be my intention to make you suffer, yet I shall always do so.
Author: Franz Kafka
Nothing unites two people so completely, especially if, like you and me, all they have is words.
Author: Franz Kafka
The right understanding of any matter and a misunderstanding of the same matter do not wholly exclude each other.
Author: Franz Kafka
Someone must have slandered Josef K., for one morning, without having done anything truly wrong, he was arrested.
Author: Franz Kafka
If the book we are reading does not wake us, as with a fist hammering on our skull, why then do we read it?
Author: Franz Kafka
What I write is different from what I say, what I say is different from what I think, what I think is different from what I ought to think and so it goes further into the deepest darkness.
But sleep? On a night like this? What an idea! Just think of how many thoughts a blanket smothers while one lies alone in bed, and how many unhappy dreams it keeps warm.
Author: Franz Kafka
Writing is a deeper sleep than death. Just as one wouldn’t pull a corpse from its grave, I can’t be dragged from my desk at night.
Author: Franz Kafka
What do I have in common with Jews? I don’t even have anything in common with myself.
Author: 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.
Author: Franz Kafka
I have hardly anything in common with myself and should stand very quietly in a corner, content that I can breathe.
Author: Franz Kafka
Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy.
Author: Franz Kafka
I am too tired, I must try to rest and sleep, otherwise I am lost in every respect. What an effort to keep alive! Erecting a monument does not require an expenditure of so much strength.
Author: Franz Kafka
Do you know, darling? When you became involved with others you quite possibly stepped down a level or two, but If you become involved with me, you will be throwing yourself into the abyss.
Author: Franz Kafka
Yours (now I’m even losing my name – it was getting shorter and shorter all the time and is now: Yours)
Author: Franz Kafka
The person I am in the company of my sisters has been entirely different from the person I am in the company of other people. Fearless, powerful, surprising, moved as I otherwise am only when I write.
Author: Franz Kafka
Logic may indeed be unshakeable, but it cannot withstand a man who is determined to live.
Author: 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.
Author: Franz Kafka
Sleep is the most innocent creature there is and a sleepless man the most guilty.
Author: Franz Kafka
It is not necessary to accept everything as true, one must only accept it as necessary.’ ‘A melancholy conclusion,’ said K. ‘It turns lying into a universal principle.
Author: Franz Kafka
There art two cardinal sins from which all others spring: Impatience and Laziness.
Author: Franz Kafka
People label themselves with all sorts of adjectives. I can only pronounce myself as ‘nauseatingly miserable beyond repair’.
Author: Franz Kafka
Believing in progress does not mean believing that any progress has yet been made.
Author: Franz Kafka
They’re talking about things of which they don’t have the slightest understanding, anyway. It’s only because of their stupidity that they’re able to be so sure of themselves.
Author: Franz Kafka
Was he an animal, that music could move him so? He felt as if the way to the unknown nourishment he longed for were coming to light.
Author: Franz Kafka
I’m tired, can’t think of anything and want only to lay my face in your lap, feel your hand on my head and remain like that through all eternity.
Author: Franz Kafka
I dream of a grave, deep and narrow, where we could clasp each other in our arms as with clamps, and I would hide my face in you and you would hide your face in me, and nobody would ever see us any more
Author: Franz Kafka
Last night I dreamed about you. What happened in detail I can hardly remember, all I know is that we kept merging into one another. I was you, you were me. Finally you somehow caught fire.
Author: Franz Kafka
The Kafka paradox: art depends on truth, but truth, being indivisable, cannot know itself: to tell the truth is to lie. thus the writer is the truth, and yet when he speaks he lies.
Author: 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.
Author: Franz Kafka
From a certain point onward there is no longer any turning back. That is the point that must be reached.
Author: Franz Kafka
Written kisses don’t reach their destination, rather they are drunk on the way by the ghosts.
Author: Franz Kafka
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.
Author: Franz Kafka
Just think how many thoughts a blanket smothers while one lies alone in bed, and how many unhappy dreams it keeps warm.
Author: Franz Kafka
We photograph things in order to drive them out of our minds. My stories are a way of shutting my eyes.
Author: Franz Kafka
May I kiss you then? On this miserable paper? I might as well open the window and kiss the night air.
Author: Franz Kafka
This tremendous world I have inside of me. How to free myself, and this world, without tearing myself to pieces. And rather tear myself to a thousand pieces than be buried with this world within me.
Author: Franz Kafka
I need solitude for my writing; not ‘like a hermit’ – that wouldn’t be enough – but like a dead man.
Author: Franz Kafka
As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.
Author: Franz Kafka
I do not speak as I think, I do not think as I should, and so it all goes on in helpless darkness.
Author: Franz Kafka
It’s only because of their stupidity that they’re able to be so sure of themselves.
Author: Franz Kafka
By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired.
A non-writing writer is a monster courting insanity.” [Letter to Max Brod, July 5, 1922]
I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself.
I write differently from what I speak, I speak differently from what I think, I think differently from the way I ought to think, and so it all proceeds into deepest darkness.
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Author: Franz Kafka