Quotes By Franz Kafka

The relationship to one's fellow man is the relationship of prayer, the relationship to oneself is the relationship of striving; it is from prayer that one draws the strength for one's striving.

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

Self-control means wanting to be effective at some random point in the infinite radiations of my spiritual existence.

The experience of life consists of the experience which the spirit has of itself in matter and as matter, in mind and as mind, in emotion, as emotion, etc.

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

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

My guiding principle is this: Guilt is never to be doubted.

No sooner said than done - so acts your man of worth.

Heaven is dumb, echoing only the dumb.

Tyranny or slavery, born of selfishness, are the two educational methods of parents; all gradations of tyranny or slavery.

The spirit becomes free only when it ceases to be a support.

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.

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

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

In the struggle between yourself and the world second the world.

It is comforting to reflect that the disproportion of things in the world seems to be only arithmetical.

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

How can one take delight in the world unless one flees to it for refuge?

The decisive moment in human evolution is perpetual. That is why the revolutionary spiritual movements that declare all former things worthless are in the right, for nothing has yet happened.

If I shall exist eternally, how shall I exist tomorrow?

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

So long as you have food in your mouth, you have solved all questions for the time being.

My "fear" is my substance, and probably the best part of me.

In argument similes are like songs in love; they describe much, but prove nothing.

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

In theory there is a possibility of perfect happiness: To believe in the indestructible element within one, and not to strive towards it.

One must not cheat anyone, not even the world of its victory.

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, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.

Religions get lost as people do.