Top 500 Franz Kafka Quotes (2024 Update)
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251. “A man of action forced into a state of thought is unhappy until he can get out of it.”

— Franz Kafka

252. “His last words to Robert Klopstock are ‘Kill me, or you are a murderer.”

— Franz Kafka

253. “The man in ecstasy and the man drowning – both throw up their arms. The first to signify harmony, the second to signify strife with the elements.”

— Franz Kafka

254. “One must fight to get to the top, especially if one starts at the bottom.”

— Franz Kafka

255. “Humility provides everyone, even him who despairs in solitude, with the strongest relationship to his fellow man.”

— Franz Kafka

256. “Knowledge we have. Anyone who strives for it with particular intensity is suspect of striving against it.”

— Franz Kafka

257. “Being alone has a power over me that never fails. My interior dissolves and is ready to release what lies deeper.”

— Franz Kafka

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

— Franz Kafka

259. “But all remains unchanged.”

— Franz Kafka

260. “From outside one will always triumphantly impress theories upon the world and then fall straight into the ditch one has dug, but only from inside will one keep oneself and the world quiet and true.”

— Franz Kafka

261. “Illusions are more common than changes in fortune.”

— Franz Kafka

262. “The whole visible world is perhaps nothing other than a motivation of man’s wish to rest for a moment an attempt to falsify the fact of knowledge, to try to turn the knowledge into the goal.”

— Franz Kafka

263. “Even the merest gesture is holy if it is filled with faith.”

— Franz Kafka

264. “If they were shocked, then Gregor had no further responsibility and could be calm. But if they took everything calmly, he he, too, had no reason to get excited and could, if he hurried, actually be at the station by eight o’clock.”

— Franz Kafka

265. “In a way, I was safe writing.”

— Franz Kafka

266. “It’s characteristic of this judicial system that a man is condemned not only when he’s innocent but also in ignorance.”

— Franz Kafka

267. “We are instructed to do the negative; the positive is already within us.”

— Franz Kafka

268. “Writing is a sweet, wonderful reward.”

— Franz Kafka

269. “I did not fall heavily, nor did I feel any pain, but I felt so weak and unhappy that I buried my face in the ground: I could not bear the strain of seeing around me the things of the earth. I felt convinced that every movement and every thought was forced, and that one had to be one’s guard against them. Yet nothing seemed more natural than to lie here on the grass, my arms beside my body, my face hidden.”

— Franz Kafka

270. “The main thing, when a sword cuts into one’s soul, is to keep a calm gaze, lose no blood, accept the coldness of the sword with the coldness of a stone. By means of the stab, after the stab, become invulnerable.”

— Franz Kafka

271. “The chains that cuff humanity are made of office paper.”

— Franz Kafka

272. “The relief of giving in to destruction.”

— Franz Kafka

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

— Franz Kafka

274. “The fact that no one knows where I am is my only happiness. If only I could prolong this forever! It would be far more just than death. I am empty and futile in every corner of my being, even in my unhappiness.”

— Franz Kafka

275. “May I kiss you then? On this miserable paper? I might as well open the window and kiss the night air.”

— Franz Kafka

276. “The Diabolical sometimes assumes the aspect of the Good, or even embodies itself completely in its form. If this remains concealedfrom me, I am of course defeated, for this Good is more tempting than the genuine Good.”

— Franz Kafka

277. “Peaceful moon. I consist only of bones.”

— Franz Kafka

278. “Written kisses don’t reach their destination, rather they are drunk on the way by the ghosts.”

— Franz Kafka

279. “You can hold back from the suffering of the world, you have permission to do so, and it is in accordance with your nature. But perhaps this very holding back is the one suffering that you could have avoided.”

— Franz Kafka

280. “I will cross hundreds of seas and oceans without sinking to reach you, see your eyes and sink completely into their depths.”

— Franz Kafka

281. “This morning, for the first time in a long time, the joy again of imagining a knife twisted in my heart.”

— Franz Kafka

282. “You wouldn’t believe the kind of person I could become if you wanted it.”

— Franz Kafka

283. “I long for you; I who usually longs without longing, as though I am unconscious and absorbed in neutrality and apathy, really, utterly long for every bit of you.”

— Franz Kafka

284. “I have hardly anything in common with myself and should stand very quietly in a corner, content that I can breathe.”

— Franz Kafka

285. “Judgement does not come suddenly; the proceedings gradually merge into the judgement.”

— Franz Kafka

286. “I’m thinking only of my illness and my health, though both, the first as well as the second, are you.”

— Franz Kafka

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

— Franz Kafka

288. “I can’t feel a thing; All mournful petal storms are dancing inside the very private spring of my head.”

— Franz Kafka

289. “Oh well, memories, said I. Yes, even remembering in itself is sad, yet how much more its object! Don’t let yourself in for things like that, it’s not for you and not for me. It only weakens one’s present position without strengthening the former one – nothing is more obvious – quite apart from the fact that the former one doesn’t need strengthening.”

— Franz Kafka

290. “His growing lack of concern for the others hardly surprised him, whereas previously he had prided himself on being considerate.”

— Franz Kafka

291. “I am forever chained to myself; that’s what I am, and that’s what I must try to live with.”

— Franz Kafka

292. “In me, by myself, without human relationship, there are no visible lies. The limited circle is pure.”

— Franz Kafka

293. “For now he must lie low and try, through patience and the greatest consideration, to help his family bear the inconvenience he was bound to cause them in his present condition.”

— Franz Kafka

294. “Anything that has real and lasting value is always a gift from within.”

— Franz Kafka

295. “I’m not in the right place – alas, I cannot rid myself of the feeling that I’m not in the right place.”

— Franz Kafka

296. “We can’t carry on like this. Maybe you can’t see it, but I can. I don’t want to call this monster my brother, all I can say is: we have to try and get rid of it.”

— Franz Kafka

297. “I was wise, if you like, because I was prepared for death at any moment, but not because I had taken care of everything that was given to me to do, rather because I had done none of it and could not even hope ever to do any of it.”

— Franz Kafka

298. “The moon shone down on everything with that simplicity and serenity which no other light possesses.”

— Franz Kafka

299. “By your side I’m most quiet and most unquiet, most inhibited and most free.”

— Franz Kafka

300. “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.”

— Franz Kafka