A first sign of the beginning of understanding is the wish to die. Franz Kafka More Quotes by Franz Kafka More Quotes From Franz Kafka The tremendous world I have inside my head. But how free myself and free it without being torn to pieces. And a thousand times rather be torn to pieces than retain it in me or bury it. That, indeed, is why I am here, that is quite clear to me. Franz Kafka tornpiecesworld 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. Franz Kafka fightingunderstandingartist Man cannot live without a permanent trust in something indestructible in himself, though both the indestructible element and the trust may remain permanently hidden from him. One of the ways in which this hiddenness can express itself is through faith in a personal god. Franz Kafka maymenway Atlas was permitted the opinion that he was at liberty, if he wished, to drop the Earth and creep away; but this opinion was all that he was permitted. Franz Kafka atlaslibertyliterature 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. Franz Kafka choiceskingschildren Written kisses don't reach their destination, rather they are drunk on the way by the ghosts. Franz Kafka drunkkissingway Writing is a deeper sleep than death. Just as one wouldn't pull a corpse from its grave, I can't be dragged from my desk at night. Franz Kafka sleepwritingnight This inescapable duty to observe oneself: if someone else is observing me, naturally I have to observe myself too; if none observe me, I have to observe myself all the closer. Franz Kafka dutyhealthifs If education tries to make other persons out of us than we essentially are, deeper inside, it stultifies, and reproach matters. Franz Kafka deepermattertrying Hiding places there are innumerable, escape is only one, but possibilities of escape, again, are as many as hiding places. Franz Kafka hiding-placehidingpossibility Knowledge we have. Anyone who strives for it with particular intensity is suspect of striving against it. Franz Kafka intensitystriveknowledge Human nature, essentially changeable, as unstable as the dust, can endure no restraint; if it binds itself it soon begins to tear madly at its bonds, until it rends everything asunder, the wall, the bonds, and its very self. Franz Kafka walldustself What I write is different from what I say, what I say is different from what I think, what I think is different from what I ought to think and so it goes further into the deepest darkness. Franz Kafka communicationwritingthinking and in that recurring dream, I found myself trapped in some sort of gigantic game of which I was unfamiliar with the rules; lost in a labyrinthine town of dark and damp, criss-crossing streets, ambiguous characters of uncertain authority having no idea of why I was there nor what I had to do, and where the first sign of the beginning of understanding was the wish to die. Franz Kafka darkdreamcharacter The old incapacity. Interrupted my writing for barely ten days and already cast out. Once again prodigious efforts stand before me. You have to dive down, as it were, and sink more rapidly than that which sinks in advance of you. Franz Kafka incapacityeffortwriting They say ignorance is bliss.... they're wrong Franz Kafka ignorance-is-blissblissignorance Death confronts us not unlike the historical battle scene that hangs on the wall of the classroom. It is our task to obscure or quite obliterate the picture by our deeds while we are still in this world. Franz Kafka wallhistoricaldeath Leopards break into the temple and drink all the sacrificial vessels dry; it keeps happening; in the end, it can be calculated in advance and is incorporated into the ritual. Franz Kafka drinkdryrats 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. Franz Kafka partyjudgingworld So eager are our people to obliterate the present. Franz Kafka people
