Franz Kafka quotes

Franz Kafka was a German-speaking Bohemian writer, known for his surreal and existential works. His stories often explore themes of alienation, bureaucracy, and the absurdity of modern life. He remains a major influence on world literature and philosophy. Here are 334 of his quotes:

A book should serve as the ax for the frozen sea within us. (Franz Kafka)
In theory there is a possibility of perfect happiness: To believe in the indestructible element within one, and not to strive towards it. View quote
Franz Kafka
What do I have in common with Jews? I don't even have anything in common with myself. View quote
Franz Kafka
So long as you have food in your mouth, you have solved all questions for the time being. View quote
Franz Kafka
Believing in progress does not mean believing that any progress has yet been made. View quote
Franz Kafka
The spirit becomes free only when it ceases to be a support. View quote
Franz Kafka
Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy. View quote
Franz Kafka
Faith, like a guillotine. As heavy, as light. View quote
Franz Kafka
Test yourself on mankind. It is something that makes the doubter doubt, the believer believe. View quote
Franz Kafka
Youth is happy because it has the ability to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old. View quote
Franz Kafka
The meaning of life is that it stops. (Franz Kafka)
In the struggle between yourself and the world second the world. View quote
Franz Kafka
God gives the nuts, but he does not crack them. View quote
Franz Kafka
Evil is whatever distracts. View quote
Franz Kafka
Religions get lost as people do. View quote
Franz Kafka
The history of mankind is the instant between two strides taken by a traveler. View quote
Franz Kafka
Idleness is the beginning of all vice, the crown of all virtues. View quote
Franz Kafka
Two tasks at the beginning of your life: to narrow your orbit more and more, and ever and again to check whether you are not in hiding somewhere outside your orbit. View quote
Franz Kafka
The thornbush is the old obstacle in the road. It must catch fire if you want to go further. View quote
Franz Kafka
My "fear" is my substance, and probably the best part of me. View quote
Franz Kafka
Now I can look at you in peace I don't eat you anymore. (Franz Kafka)
Now the sirens have a still more fatal weapon than their song, namely their silence... someone might have escaped from their singing; but from their silence, certainly never. View quote
Franz Kafka
Everything you say is boring and incomprehensible, she said, but that alone doesn't make it true. View quote
Franz Kafka
Don Quixote's misfortune is not his imagination, but Sancho Panza. View quote
Franz Kafka
Start with what is right rather than what is acceptable. View quote
Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka - Image
Occupation: Writer
Born: July 3, 1883
Died: June 3, 1924
Quotes count: 334
Wikipedia: Franz Kafka

Related authors

Albert Camus - thumbnail
Albert Camus  488 
French Philosopher
Fyodor Dostoyevsky - thumbnail
Fyodor Dostoyevsky  209 
Russian Novelist
Friedrich Nietzsche - thumbnail
Friedrich Nietzsche  855 
German Philosopher
James Joyce - thumbnail
James Joyce  216 
Irish Novelist
Émile Zola - thumbnail
Émile Zola  63 
French Journalist
Ernest Hemingway - thumbnail
Ernest Hemingway  571 
American Author
Jean-Paul Sartre - thumbnail
Jean-Paul Sartre  371 
French Philosopher
Marcel Proust - thumbnail
Marcel Proust  136 
French Novelist
Thomas Mann  178 
German Novelist
Gabriel García Márquez - thumbnail
Gabriel García Márquez  262 
Colombian Writer