Franz Kafka Quotes | GloryQuotes

Franz Kafka Quotes About Life

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

We are separated from God on two sides; the Fall separates us from Him, the Tree of Life separates Him from us.

The fact that our task is exactly commensurate with our life gives it the appearance of being infinite.

If there is a transmigration of souls then I am not yet on the bottom rung. My life is a hesitation before birth.

Hesitation before birth. If there is a transmigration of souls then I am not yet on the bottom rung. My life is a hesitation before birth.

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.

We are sinful not only because we have eaten of the Tree of Knowledge, but also because we have not yet eaten of the Tree of Life. The state in which we are is sinful, irrespective of guilt.

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 Quotes About Spiritual

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

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

There is nothing besides a spiritual world; what we call the world of the senses is the Evil in the spiritual world, and what we call Evil is only the necessity of a moment in our eternal evolution.

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.

More Quotes by Franz Kafka

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

Youth is happy because it has the ability to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.

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

The mediation by the serpent was necessary. Evil can seduce man, but cannot become man.

Suffering is the positive element in this world, indeed it is the only link between this world and the positive.

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

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

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

It is only our conception of time that makes us call the Last Judgement by this name. It is, in fact, a kind of martial law.

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

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

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

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

The thornbush is the old obstacle in the road. It must catch fire if you want to go further.

The history of mankind is the instant between two strides taken by a traveler.

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

Martyrs do not underrate the body, they allow it to be elevated on the cross. In this they are at one with their antagonists.

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

One of the first signs of the beginning of understanding is the wish to die.

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.

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

One tells as few lies as possible only by telling as few lies as possible, and not by having the least possible opportunity to do so.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

Hiding places there are innumerable, escape is only one, but possibilities of escape, again, are as many as hiding places.

Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before.

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

Idleness is the beginning of all vice, the crown of all virtues.

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

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.

Association with human beings lures one into self-observation.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Browse 82 quotes attributed to Franz Kafka, listed in the source data as a Austrian Novelist, organized around themes such as Life, Spiritual, Time. Use the topic links to explore similar quotes, or browse the full author collection in one place.