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Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka Quotes

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Famous Franz Kafka Quotes

“Everyone strives to attain the Law,' answers the man, 'how does it come about, then, that in all these years no one has come seeking admittance but me?' The doorkeeper perceives that the man is nearing his end and his hearing is failing, so he bellows in his ear: 'No one but you could gain admittance through this door, since this door was intended for you. I am now going to shut it.”

MenYearsDoeEndsLawAnswersFailingDoorsGainsEarsStriveSeekingHearingPerceiveStrifeAdmittance
Book:The Trial
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“What a fate: to be condemned to work for a firm where the slightest negligence at once gave rise to the gravest suspicion! Were all the employees nothing but a bunch of scoundrels, was there not among them one single loyal devoted man who, had he wasted only an hour or so of the firm's time in the morning, was so tormented by conscience as to be driven out of his mind and actually incapable of leaving his bed?”

MenMindHoursMorningFateBedConscienceLeavingDrivenBunchFirmEmployeeLoyalDevotedSuspicionIncapableScoundrelsNegligence
Author:Franz Kafka
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“If I didn't have my parents to think about I'd have given in my notice a long time ago, I'd have gone up to the boss and told him just what I think, tell him everything I would, let him know just what I feel. He'd fall right off his desk! And it's a funny sort of business to be sitting up there at your desk, talking down at your subordinates from up there, especially when you have to go right up close because the boss is hard of hearing.”

IfsThinkingKnowsFeelsLongHardFallGivenParentTalkingGoneLong TimeSittingHearingBossDesksLong Time AgoSubordinatesMetamorphosisSitting UpTalking Down
Book:Metamorphosis
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“This perversion of the truth, familiar to the artist though it was, always unnerved him afresh and proved too much for him. What was a consequence of the premature ending of his fast was here presented as the cause of it! To fight against this lack of understanding, against a whole world of nonunderstanding, was impossible.”

WorldWholeArtistFightingCausesUnderstandingToo MuchImpossibleConsequenceWhole WorldFamiliarPrematurePerversionLack Of Understanding
Book:The Basic Kafka
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“One of the first signs of the beginning of understanding is the wish to die. This life appears unbearable, another unattainable. One is no longer ashamed of wanting to die; one asks to be moved from the old cell, which one hates, to a new one, which one willl only in time come to hate. In this there is also a residue of belief that during the move the master will chance to come along the corridor, look at the prisoner and say: "This man is not to be locked up again, He is to come with me.”

MenFirstsLooksMovingHateDiesAsksBeliefWishUnderstandingChanceMastersMovedCellsThis LifeAshamedPrisonerLockedUnbearableWanting To DieUnattainableLocked UpCorridorsWish To Die
Author:Franz Kafka
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“I am constantly trying to communicate something incommunicable, to explain something inexplicable, to tell about something I only feel in my bones and which can only be experienced in those bones. Basically it is nothing other than this fear we have so often talked about, but fear spread to everything, fear of the greatest as of the smallest, fear, paralyzing fear of pronouncing a word, although this fear may not only be fear but also a longing for something greater than all that is fearful.”

FeelsTryingMayGreaterCommunicationLongingCommunicateSpreadBonesFearfulSmallestInexplicable
Author:Franz Kafka
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