928 Quotes by Franz Kafka

In man’s struggle against the world, bet on the world.

We need the books that affect us like a disaster.

I won’t give up the diary again. I must hold on here, it is the only place I can.

I dream of a grave, deep and narrow, where we could clasp each other in our arms as with clamps, and I would hide my face in you and you would hide your face in me, and nobody would ever see us any more.

I repeat: there was no attraction for me in imitating human beings; I imitated them because I needed a way out, and for no other reason.

He had indeed been so close to forgetting that only the voice of the mother, so long unheard, brought him to his senses.

ALAS,” said the mouse, “the world is growing smaller every day. At the beginning it was so big that I was afraid, I kept running and running, and I was glad when at last I saw walls far away to the right and left, but these long walls have narrowed so quickly that I am in the last chamber already, and there in the corner stands the trap that I must run into.” “You only need to change your direction,” said the cat, and ate it up. Translated.

I am in chains. Don’t touch my chains.

Oh well, memories, said I. Yes, even remembering in itself is sad, yet how much more its object! Don’t let yourself in for things like that, it’s not for you and not for me. It only weakens one’s present position without strengthening the former one – nothing is more obvious – quite apart from the fact that the former one doesn’t need strengthening.