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Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka Quotes

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Famous Franz Kafka Quotes

“Psychology is the description of the reflection of the terrestial world in the heavenly plane, or, more correctly, the description of a reflection such as we, soaked as we are in our terrestial nature, imagine it, for no reflection actually occurs, only we see earth wherever we turn.”

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Book:Wedding preparations in the country: and other posthumous prose writings. With notes by Max Brod
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“You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet, still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.”

WorldLifeInspirationalNeedsStillsWisdomChoicesWaitingRoomsFeetOffersSolitudeQuietSittingTablesMy SoulEcstasyContemplatingSolitaryIntrovertMeditation PracticeYour RoomQuiet LifeBeing QuietSoul LifeSpiritual EyesSolitary LifeUnmaskingQuiet RoomSitting And Waiting
Author:Franz Kafka
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“I can’t think of any greater happiness than to be with you all the time, without interruption, endlessly, even though I feel that here in this world there’s no undisturbed place for our love, neither in the village nor anywhere else; and 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.”

ThinkingWorldInspirationalFeelsI CanDreamFacesGreaterThis WorldArmsGravesVillageYour FaceOur LoveRelatableInterruptions
Author:Franz Kafka
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“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.”

PeopleWorldWayGivingEndsMightAsksWalksThis WorldOffersStandingWindowMy FamilyClaimsTownsDefenseAsk MeShopsPlatformsIrrelevantHolding OnGazingUnsureShop WindowsTrams
Book:The Metamorphosis: And Other Stories
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“Alas," said the mouse, "the whole 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 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.”

WorldNeedsLongSaidWholeBigsRunningLastsLeftSawsGrowingWallCatCornersGladWhole WorldFar AwayTrapsMiceAlasChamberNeed A Change
Author:Franz Kafka
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“I can prove at any time that my education tried to make another person out of me than the one I became. It is for the harm, therefore, that my educators could have done me in accordance with their intentions that I reproach them; I demand from their hands the person I now am, and since they cannot give him to me, I make of my reproach and laughter a drumbeat sounding in the world beyond.”

WorldGivingPersonsI CanDoneHandsTimeEducationDemandProveLaughterIntentionHarmAphorismEducatorReproach
Book:The diaries of Franz Kafka
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“They were offered the choice between becoming kings or the couriers of kings. The way children would, they all wanted to be couriers. Therefore there are only couriers who hurry about the world, shouting to each other - since there are no kings - messages that have become meaningless. They would like to put an end to this miserable life of theirs but they dare not because of their oaths of service.”

WorldWayChildrenEndsWantedChoicesKingsBecomingMessagesDareMiserableMeaninglessOathShoutingMiserable Life
Book:Parables and paradoxes: in German and English
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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 can disintegrate the world by means of very strong light. For weak eyes the world becomes solid, for still weaker eyes it seems to develop fists, for eyes weaker still it becomes shamefaced and smashes anyone who dares to gaze upon it.”

WorldMeanStillsLightSeemsEyeStrongWeakDareVery StrongFists
Book:Wedding preparations in the country: and other posthumous prose writings. With notes by Max Brod
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“Human judgment of human actions is true and void , that is to say, first true and then void.... The judgment of the word is true, the judgment in itself is void.... Only he who is a party can really judge, but as a party he cannot judge. Hence it follows that there is no possibility of judgment in the world, only a glimmer of it.”

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Book:The Blue Octavo Notebooks
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