Franz Kafka Quotes

“A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us.”

“I am a cage, in search of a bird.”

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

“There is a goal, but no way; what we call the way is hesitation.”

“In the fight between you and the world, back the world.”

“Plenty of hope, an infinite amount of hope, but not for us.”

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

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

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

“Not everyone can see the truth, but he can be it.”

“There are only two things: truth and lies. Truth is indivisible, hence it cannot recognise itself; anyone who wants to recognise it has to be a lie.”

“One advantage in keeping a diary is that you become aware with reassuring clarity of the changes which you constantly suffer.”

“Perhaps there is only one cardinal sin: impatience. Because of impatience we were driven out of Paradise, because of impatience we cannot return.”

“He who seeks does not find, but he who does not seek will be found.”

“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.”

“You can hold yourself back from the sufferings of the world; that is something you are free to do. But perhaps this very holding back is the one suffering you could avoid.”

“Anyone who cannot come to terms with his life while he is alive needs one hand to ward off a little his despair over his fate, but with his other hand he can note down what he sees among the ruins.”

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

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

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

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

“The history of mankind is the instant between two strides taken by a traveller.”

“Atlas was permitted the opinion that he was at liberty, if he wished, to drop the Earth and creep away; but this opinion was all that he was permitted.”

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