928 Quotes by Franz Kafka

His weariness is that of the gladiator after the combat; his work was the whitewashing of a corner in a state official's office

But questions that don’t answer themselves at the very moment of their asking are never answered.

I stand on the end platform of the tram and am completely unsure of my footing in this world, in this town, in my family. Not even casually could I indicate any claims that I might rightly advance in any direction. I have not even any defense to offer for standing on this platform, holding on to this strap, letting myself be carried along by this tram, nor for the people who give way to the tram or walk quietly along or stand gazing into shop windows. Nobody asks me to put up a defense, indeed, but that is irrelevant.

I'm thinking only of my illness and my health, though both, the first as well as the second, are you.

He is a free and secure citizen of the world because he is on a chain that is long enough to allow him access to all parts of the earth, and yet not so long that he could be swept over the edge of it.

You are free and that is why you are lost

It receives you when you come and dismisses you when you go.

Follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.

Hold fast to the diary from today on! Write regularly! Don't surrender! Even if no salvation should come, I want to be worthy of it every moment.