Top 500 Franz Kafka Quotes (2024 Update)
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151. “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.”

— Franz Kafka

152. “The right understanding of any matter and a misunderstanding of the same matter do not wholly exclude each other.”

— Franz Kafka

153. “One day, a leopard stalked into the synagogue, roaring and lashing its tail. Three weeks later, it had become part of the liturgy.”

— Franz Kafka

154. “Religions get lost as people do.”

— Franz Kafka

155. “No sooner said than done – so acts your man of worth.”

— Franz Kafka

156. “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

157. “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.”

— Franz Kafka

158. “The purpose of a story is to be an axe that breaks up the ice within us.”

— Franz Kafka

159. “Association with human beings lures one into self-observation.”

— Franz Kafka

160. “That’s how it will be, except that in reality, both today and later, one will stand there with a palpable body and a real head, a real forehead, that is, for smiting on with one’s hand.”

— Franz Kafka

161. “He who does not answer the questions has passed the test.”

— Franz Kafka

162. “The crows maintain that a single crow could destroy the heavens. There is no doubt of that, but it proves nothing against the heavens, for heaven simply means: the impossibility of crows.”

— Franz Kafka

163. “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.”

— Franz Kafka

164. “Man cannot live without a continuous confidence in something indestructible within himself.”

— Franz Kafka

165. “The limited circle is pure.”

— Franz Kafka

166. “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

167. “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.”

— Franz Kafka

168. “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.”

— Franz Kafka

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

— Franz Kafka

170. “If I shall exist eternally, how shall I exist tomorrow?”

— Franz Kafka

171. “The Messiah will come only when he is no longer necessary, he will come only one day after his arrival, he will not come on the last day, but on the last day of all.”

— Franz Kafka

172. “Oh, plenty of hope, an infinite amount of hope – but not for us.”

— Franz Kafka

173. “You see, I have only such a fugitive awareness of things around me that I always feel they were once real and are now fleeting away.”

— Franz Kafka

174. “Don’t despair, not even over the fact that you don’t despair.”

— Franz Kafka

175. “In the struggle between yourself and the world, hold the world’s coat.”

— Franz Kafka

176. “Ours is a lost generation, it may be, but it is more blameless than those earlier generations.”

— Franz Kafka

177. “Just because your doctor has a name for your condition, doesn’t mean he knows what it is.”

— Franz Kafka

178. “Life’s splendor forever lies in wait about each one of us in all its fullness, but veiled from view, deep down, invisible, far off. It is there, though, not hostile, not reluctant, not deaf. If you summon it by the right word, by its right name, it will come.”

— Franz Kafka

179. “The state we find ourselves in is sinful quite independent of guilt.”

— Franz Kafka

180. “If the book we are reading does not wake us, as with a fist hammering on our skulls, then why do we read it? Good God, we also would be happy if we had no books and such books that make us happy we could, if need be, write ourselves. What we must have are those books that come on us like ill fortune, like the death of one we love better than ourselves, like suicide. A book must be an ice axe to break the sea frozen inside us.”

— Franz Kafka

181. “I wanted to escape the unrest, to shut out the voices around me and within me, so I write.”

— Franz Kafka

182. “If something good has lost its way into you, it will make its escape overnight. I know you.”

— Franz Kafka

183. “He is a free and secure citizen of the world because he is on a chain that is long enough to allow him access to all parts of the earth, and yet not so long that he could be swept over the edge of it.”

— Franz Kafka

184. “There will be no proof that I ever was a writer.”

— Franz Kafka

185. “ALAS,” said the mouse, “the world is growing smaller every day. At the beginning it was so big that I was afraid, I kept running and running, and I was glad when at last I saw walls far away to the right and left, but these long walls have narrowed so quickly that I am in the last chamber already, and there in the corner stands the trap that I must run into.” “You only need to change your direction,” said the cat, and ate it up. Translated.”

— Franz Kafka

186. “You belong to me, even if I should never see you again.”

— Franz Kafka

187. “O God,” he thought, “what a demanding job I’ve chosen! Day in, day out on the road. The stresses of trade are much greater than the work going on at head office, and, in addition to that, I have to deal with the problems of traveling, the worries about train connections, irregular bad food, temporary and constantly changing human relationships which never come from the heart. To hell with it all!”

— Franz Kafka

188. “Nothing is as deceptive as a photograph.”

— Franz Kafka

189. “He was a tool of the boss, without brains or backbone.”

— Franz Kafka

190. “You misinterpret everything, even the silence.”

— Franz Kafka

191. “What is love? After all, it is quite simple. Love is everything which enhances, widens, and enriches our life. In its heights and in its depths. Love has as few problems as a motor-car. The only problems are the driver, the passengers, and the road.”

— Franz Kafka

192. “It’s only because of their stupidity that they’re able to be so sure of themselves.”

— Franz Kafka

193. “Loneliness is my only goal, my greatest temptation, my possibility and, if you can say that I have ‘organized’ my life, then it has been organized to make loneliness feel good.”

— Franz Kafka

194. “This inescapable duty to observe oneself: if someone else is observing me, naturally I have to observe myself too; if none observe me, I have to observe myself all the closer.”

— Franz Kafka

195. “I’m doing badly, I’m doing well; whichever you prefer.”

— Franz Kafka

196. “Should I be grateful or should I curse the fact that despite all misfortune I can still feel love, an unearthly love but still for earthly objects.”

— Franz Kafka

197. “The tremendous world I have inside my head. But how free myself and free it without being torn to pieces. And a thousand times rather be torn to pieces than retain it in me or bury it. That, indeed, is why I am here, that is quite clear to me.”

— Franz Kafka

198. “Time is short, my strength is limited, the office is a horror, the apartment is noisy, and if a pleasant, straightforward life is not possible, then one must try to wriggle through by subtle manoeuvres.”

— Franz Kafka

199. “Written kisses never arrive at their destination; the ghosts drink them up along the way.”

— Franz Kafka

200. “We photograph things in order to drive them out of our minds. My stories are a way of shutting my eyes.”

— Franz Kafka