928 Quotes by Franz Kafka

48 Belief in progress doesn’t mean belief in progress that has already occurred. That would not require belief.

The man from the country has not expected such difficulties; the law, he thinks, should be accessible to everyone and at all times; but as he now takes a closer look at the doorkeeper in his fur coat, at his large pointed nose, his long, sparse, black Tartar beard, he decides that it is better, after all, to wait until he receives permission to enter.

Sometimes she would hide her eyes behind her hands, and then no words could get through to her.

I feel an unhappiness which almost dismembers me, and at the same time am convinced of its necessity.

If you come to me you will be leaping into the abyss.

We are as forlorn as children lost in the wood. When you stand in front of me and look at me, what do you know of the griefs that are in me and what do I know of yours? And if I were to cast myself down before you and tell you, what more would you know about me that you know about Hell when someone tells you it is hot and dreadful?

It follows, perhaps, that we are now both married, you in Vienna, I to my fear in Prague, and that not only you, but I too, tug in vain at our marriage.

One has just been sent out as a biblical dove, has found nothing green, and slips back into the darkness of the Ark.

One has either to take people as they are, or leave them as they are. One cannot change them, one can merely disturb their balance. A human being, after all, is not made up of single pieces, from which a single piece can be taken out and replaced by something else.