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

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

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

A man of action forced into a state of thought is unhappy until he can get out of it.
Franz Kafka

A stair not worn hollow by footsteps is, regarded from its own point of view, only a boring something made of wood.
Franz Kafka

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

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.
Franz Kafka

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

Association with human beings lures one into self-observation.
Franz Kafka

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.
Franz Kafka


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

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

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

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

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

Dread of night. Dread of not-night.
Franz Kafka

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

Evil is whatever distracts.
Franz Kafka

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

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