Franz Kafka

“Anyway, it’s best not to think about them, as if you do it makes the discussions with the other lawyers, all their advice and all that they do manage to achieve, seem so unpleasant and useless, I had that experience myself, just wanted to throw everything away and lay at home in bed and hear nothing more about it. But that, of course, would be the stupidest thing you could do, and you wouldn’t be left in peace in bed for very long either.”

“If he stayed at home and carried on with his normal life he would be a thousand times superior to these people and could get any of them out of his way just with a kick.”

“But happiness only if I can raise the world into the Pure, the True, the Immutable.”

“No one will read what I write here, no one will come to help me... My ship is rudderless, it's driven by the wind blowing into the nethermost regions of death.”

“It is often safer to be in chains than to be free.”

“There is a place where I never was before: here breathing is different, and more dazzling than the sun is the radiance of a star beside it.”

“Was he an animal that music so captivated him?”

“I want in fact more of you. In my mind I am dressing you with light; I am wrapping you up in blankets of complete acceptance and then I give myself to you. I long for you; I who usually long without longing, as though I am unconscious and absorbed in neutrality and apathy, really, utterly long for every bit of you.”

“So perhaps the best resource is to meet everything passively, to make yourself an inert mass, to stare at others with the eyes of an animal, to feel no compunction, with your own hand to throttle down whatever ghostly life remains in you.”

“It was half past six and the hands were quietly moving forwards.”

“I felt so weak and unhappy that I buried my face in the ground: I could not bear the strain of seeing around me the things of the earth. I felt convinced that every movement and every thought was forced, and that one had to be on one's guard against them.”

“But sometimes I really felt as though the starry sky rose and fell with the gasping of his chest.”

“The history of mankind is the instant between two strides taken by a traveler.”

“Caci pe cine ai uitat, poti sa-l cunosti din nou.”

“Faptele dumneavoastra vor lasa poate urme adînci de pasi în zapada, dar atît.”

“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.”

“Don't look at him!" he snapped, without noticing how odd it was to speak to free men in this way”

“It isn't necessary that you leave home. Sit at your desk and listen. Don't even listen, just wait. Don't wait, be still and alone. The whole world will offer itself to you.”

“I have spent all my life resisting the desire to end it.”

“People who walk across dark bridges, past saints,with dim, small lights.Clouds which move across gray skiespast churcheswith towers darkened in the dusk.One who leans against granite railinggazing into the evening waters,His hands resting on old stones.”

“Odandan çıkman gerekmez, masanda oturmaya devam et ve dinle.. Dinleme bile, sadece bekle..bekleme bile, gerçekten sakin ve yalnız ol. Dünya özgürce sunacaktır kendini sana..maskesinden sıyrılmak için başka seçeneği yok, huşu içinde yuvarlanacaktır ayaklarının dibine..”

“Please — consider me a dream.”

“Bio sam ukočen i hladan. Bio sam most, raspet nad bezdanom.”

“Pienso que sólo debemos leer libros de los que muerden y pinchan. Si el libro que estamos leyendo no nos obliga a despertarnos como un puñetazo en la cara, ¿para qué molestarnos en leerlo? ¿Para que nos haga felices, como dice tu carta? Cielo santo, ¡seríamos igualmente felices si no tuviéramos ningún libro! Los libros que nos hagan felices podríamos escribirlos nosotros mismos, si no nos quedara otro remedio. Lo que necesitamos son libros que nos golpeen como una desgracia dolorosa, como la muerte de alguien a quien queríamos más que a nosotros mismos, libros que nos hagan sentirnos desterrados a los bosques más remotos, lejos de toda presencia humana, algo semejante al suicidio. Un libro debe ser el hacha que rompa el mar helado dentro de nosotros. Eso es lo que creo”.”

“O, yeryüzünün özgür ve kendini güvenlikte hisseden bir vatandaşıdır, çünkü bütün dünyevi mekânlara ulaşma imkânını ona veren yeterince uzun bir zincirle bağlanmıştır, ama yine de hiçbir şeyin kendisini çekip yeryüzünün sınırlarından öteye almasına izin verecek kadar uzun değildir bu zincir. Ne var ki aynı zamanda, gökyüzünün de özgür ve kendini güvenlikte hisseden bir vatandaşıdır, çünkü yine uzunluk bakımından öbürünün benzeri göksel bir zincirle bağlanmıştır. Yeryüzüne inmek mi istiyor, gökyüzü zincirinin tasması yakasından çeker; gökyüzüne çıkmak mı istiyor, bu kez de yeryüzü zincirinin tasması yapar aynı işi. Ama bütün bunlara rağmen, tüm olanaklar elindedir ve bunun da farkındadır; hatta tüm bu olanları ilk zincirle bağlanışındaki bir hataya bağlamayı reddeder.”

“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.”

“Benim yalnızlığım, insanlarla dolu.”

“Querido padre:Me preguntaste una vez por qué afirmaba yo que te tengo miedo.Como de costumbre, no supe qué contestar, en parte, justamente por elmiedo que te tengo, y en parte porque en los fundamentos de ese miedoentran demasiados detalles como para que pueda mantenerlos reunidosen el curso de una conversación. Y, aunque intente ahora contestartepor escrito, mi respuesta será, no obstante, muy incomprensible, porquetambién al escribir el miedo y sus consecuencias me inhiben anteti, y porque la magnitud del tema excede mi memoria y mi entendimiento.”

“É bom quando nossa consciência sofre grandes ferimentos, pois isso a torna mais sensível a cada estímulo. Penso que devemos ler apenas livros que nos ferem, que nos afligem. Se o livro que estamos lendo não nos desperta como um soco no crânio, por que perder tempo lendo-o? Para que ele nos torne felizes, como você diz? Oh Deus, nós seríamos felizes do mesmo modo se esses livros não existissem. Livros que nos fazem felizes poderíamos escrever nós mesmos num piscar de olhos. Precisamos de livros que nos atinjam como a mais dolorosa desventura, que nos assolem profundamente – como a morte de alguém que amávamos mais do que a nós mesmos –, que nos façam sentir que fomos banidos para o ermo, para longe de qualquer presença humana – como um suicídio. Um livro deve ser um machado para o mar congelado que há dentro de nós”

“Life is astonishingly short. As I look back over it, life seems so foreshortened to me that I can hardly understand, for instance, how a young man can decide to ride over to the next village without being afraid that, quite apart from accidents, even the span of a normal life that passes happily may be totally insufficient for such a ride.”

“That is a very poor career, but only a poor career give the world the light that an imperfect, but pretty good writer wants to generate--at all costs, unfotunately.”

“Logic is doubtless unshakable, but it cannot withstand a man who wants to go on living.”

“April 27. Incapable of living with people, of speaking. Complete immersion in myself, thinking of myself. Apathetic, witless, fearful. I have nothing to say to anyone - never.”

“Die Liebe ist so unproblematisch wie ein Fahrzeug - problematisch sind nur die Lenker, die Fahrgäste und die Straße.”

“Gece gündüz, uykuda olsun, uyanık olsun, vücuduna saplanmış bir oku taşımak demek. Çekilir şey değil bu.”

“When the little mouse, which was loved as none other was in the mouse-world, got into a trap one night and with a shrill scream forfeited its life for the sight of the bacon, all the mice in the district, in their holes were overcome by trembling and shaking; with eyes blinking uncontrollably they gazed at each other one by one, while their tails scraped the ground busily and senselessly. Then they came out, hesitantly, pushing one another, all drawn towards the scene of death. There it lay, the dear little mouse, its neck caught in the deadly iron, the little pink legs drawn up, and now stiff the feeble body that would so well have deserved a scrap of bacon.The parents stood beside it and eyed their child's remains.”

“German is my mother tongue and as such more natural to me, but I consider Czech much more affectionate, which is why your letter removes several uncertainties; I see you more clearly, the movements of your body, your hands, so quick, so resolute, it’s almost like a meeting.”

“But I cannot find my way in this darkness," said K. "Turn left to the wall," said the priest, "then follow the wall without leaving it and you'll come to a door." The priest had already taken a step or two away from him, but K. cried out in a loud voice, "please wait a moment." "I am waiting," said the priest. "Don't you want anything more form me?" asked K. "No," said the priest. "You were so friendly to me for a time," said K., "and explained so much to me, and now you let me go as if you cared nothing about me." "But you have to leave now," said the priest. "Well, yes," said K., "you must see that I can't help it." "You must first see who I am," said the priest. "You are the prison chaplain," said K., groping his way nearer to the priest again; his immediate return to the Bank was not so necessary as he had made out, he could quite stay longer. "That means I belong to the Court," said the priest. "So why should I want anything from you? The court wants nothing from you. It receives you when you came and it dismisses you when you go.”

“Once more the odious courtesies began, the first handed the knife across K. to the second, who handed it across K. back again to the first. K. now perceived clearly that he was supposed to seize the knife himself, as it traveled from hand to hand above him, and plunge it into his own breast. But he did not do so, he merely turned his head, which was still free to move, and gazed around him. He could not completely rise to the occasion, he could not relieve the officials of all their tasks; the responsibility for this last failure of his lay with him who had not left him the remnant of strength necessary for the deed.”

“Like a Dog!”

“I believe that we should only read those books that bite and sting us. If a book does not rouse us with a blow then why read it?”

“I am nothing but literature, and can and want to be nothing else.”

“It's impossible to defend oneself in the absence of goodwill”

“They no longer wanted to entice anyone; all they wanted was to catch a glimpse for as long as possible of the reflected glory in the great eyes of Odysseus”

“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.”

“There's no quiet place here on earth for our love, not in the village and not anywhere else, so I picture a grave, deep and narrow, in which we embrace as if clamped together, I bury my face against you, you yours against me, and no one will ever see us.”

“Biri sana cehennemi sıcak ve korkunçtur diye anlattığında cehennem hakkında ne bilebilirsen, benim hakkımda da ancak o kadarını bilebilirsin...”

“On se bojao da će ga stid nadživeti.”

“They're talking about things of which they don't have the slightest understanding, anyway. It's only because of their stupidity that they're able to be so sure of themselves.”

“En kötüsü de sahip olamadığın şeylere ait olmandır”