Now the Sirens have a still more fatal weapon than their song, namely their silence. And though admittedly such a thing never happened, it is still conceivable that someone might possibly have escaped from their singing; but from their silence certainly never.

Franz Kafka

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.

Franz Kafka

wisdom inspirational life

If you find someone who makes you smile, who checks up on you often to see if you're okay. Who watches out or you and wants the best for you. Who loves and respects you. Don't let them go. People like that are hard to find.

Franz Kafka

make-you-smile watches people

Don't bend; don't water it down; don't try to make it logical; don't edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.

Franz Kafka

fashion truth inspirational

I no longer know If I wish to drown myself in love, vodka or the sea.

Franz Kafka

vodka wish sea

It's only because of their stupidity that they're able to be so sure of themselves.

Franz Kafka

stupidity able

I never wish to be easily defined. I’d rather float over other people’s minds as something strictly fluid and non-perceivable; more like a transparent, paradoxically iridescent creature rather than an actual person.

Franz Kafka

wish mind people

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.

Franz Kafka

communication may trying

I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself.

Franz Kafka

metamorphosis happenings life

The state we find ourselves in is sinful quite independent of guilt.

Franz Kafka

independent states guilt

You can choose to be free , but it's last decision you'll ever make

Franz Kafka

lasts decision

There are times when I am convinced I am unfit for any human relationship.

Franz Kafka

human-relations convinced humans

Do not waste your time looking for an obstacle - maybe there is none.

Franz Kafka

obstacles waste

I have no memory for things I have learned, nor things I have read, nor things experienced or heard, neither for people nor events; I feel that I have experienced nothing, learned nothing, that I actually know less than the average schoolboy, and that what I do know is superficial, and that every second question is beyond me. I am incapable of thinking deliberately; my thoughts run into a wall. I can grasp the essence of things in isolation, but I am quite incapable of coherent, unbroken thinking. I can't even tell a story properly; in fact, I can scarcely talk.

Franz Kafka

wall running memories

Start with what is right rather than what is acceptable.

Franz Kafka

autism freedom inspiring

There is a destination but no way there; what we refer to as way is hesitation.

Franz Kafka

hesitation destination way

I’m tired, can’t think of anything and want only to lay my face in your lap, feel your hand on my head and remain like that through all eternity.

Franz Kafka

tired hands thinking

If the literature we are reading does not wake us, why then do we read it? A literary work must be an ice-axe to break the sea frozen inside us.

Franz Kafka

ice reading sea

I am free and that is why I am lost.

Franz Kafka

lost

Paths are made by walking

Franz Kafka

path made walking

Isolation is a way to know ourselves.

Franz Kafka

isolation knows way