Kafka, Franz Quotes

#1. Human nature, essentially changeable, unstable as the dust, can endure no restraint; if it binds itself it soon begins to tear madly at its bonds, until it renders everything asunder, the wall, and the bonds and its very self.

Kafka, Franz

#2. Shoulder to shoulder, a coordinated movement of the people, their blood no longer confined in the limited circulation of the body but rolling sweetly and yet still returning through the infinite extent of China.

Kafka, Franz

#3. He had probably been thrown out of a wine shop, and it hadn't quite dawned on him yet.

Kafka, Franz

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

Kafka, Franz

#5. And who is it that gives you your strength? He who gives you your clear vision.

Kafka, Franz

#6. Writing letters ... means to denude oneself before the ghosts, something for which they greedily wait. Written kisses don't reach their destination, rather they are drunk on the way by the ghosts.
[Kafka to Milena]

Kafka, Franz

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

Kafka, Franz

#8. His exhaustion is that of the gladiator after the combat; his labor was the whitewashing of a corner of the wall in his office.

Kafka, Franz