Franz Kafka Quotes About Literature

We have collected for you the TOP of Franz Kafka's best quotes about Literature! Here are collected all the quotes about Literature starting from the birthday of the Writer – July 3, 1883! We hope you will be inspired to new achievements with our constantly updated collection of quotes. At the moment, this page contains 41 sayings of Franz Kafka about Literature. We will be happy if you share our collection of quotes with your friends on social networks!
  • All I am is literature, and I am not able or willing to be anything else.

  • In the struggle between yourself and the world second the world.

    "The Third Notebook," 8 Dec. 1917 (translation by Ernst Kaiser and Eithne Wilkins)
  • A book must be an ice-axe to break the seas frozen inside our soul.

  • 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.

  • In the fight between you and the world, back the world.

  • The spirit becomes free only when it ceases to be a support.

    Franz Kafka, Malcolm Pasley (1973). “Shorter works [of] Franz Kafka”, Harvill Secker
  • May I kiss you then? On this miserable paper? I might as well open the window and kiss the night air.

    Franz Kafka (2013). “Letters to Felice”, p.94, Schocken
  • Woman, or more precisely put, perhaps, marriage, is the representative of life with which you are meant to come to terms.

    Franz Kafka (1991). “The Blue Octavo Notebooks”
  • Self-control means wanting to be effective at some random point in the infinite radiations of my spiritual existence.

    Franz Kafka (1991). “The Blue Octavo Notebooks”
  • How can one take delight in the world unless one flees to it for refuge?

    Franz Kafka, Malcolm Pasley (1973). “Shorter works [of] Franz Kafka”, Harvill Secker
  • The history of mankind is the instant between two strides taken by a traveler.

    Franz Kafka (1991). “The Blue Octavo Notebooks”
  • Always first draw fresh breath after outbursts of vanity and complacency.

    Franz Kafka (1991). “The Blue Octavo Notebooks”
  • Anyone who cannot come to terms with his life while he is alive needs one hand to ward off a little his despair over his fate... but with his other hand he can note down what he sees among the ruins.

    Franz Kafka (1979). “The Basic Kafka”, p.262, Simon and Schuster
  • There are only two things. Truth and lies. Truth is indivisible, hence it cannot recognize itself; anyone who wants to recognize it has to be a lie.

    Franz Kafka (1991). “The Blue Octavo Notebooks”
  • Writers speak stench.

  • Nervous states of the worst sort control me without pause. Everything that is not literature bores me and I hate it. I lack all aptitude for family life except, at best, as an observer. I have no family feeling and visitors make me almost feel as though I were maliciously being attacked.

    Hate  
  • We are separated from God on two sides; the Fall separates us from Him, the Tree of Life separates Him from us.

    Franz Kafka (1991). “The Blue Octavo Notebooks”
  • My peers, lately, have found companionship through means of intoxication - it makes them sociable. I, however, cannot force myself to use drugs to cheat on my loneliness - it is all that I have - and when the drugs and alcohol dissipate, will be all that my peers have as well.

  • A first sign of the beginning of understanding is the wish to die.

    Franz Kafka (1994). “The collected aphorisms”
  • God gives the nuts, but he does not crack them.

  • I hate everything that does not relate to literature, conversations bore me (even if they relate to literature), to visit people bores me, the sorrows and joys of my relatives bore me to the very soul. Conversation takes the importance, the seriousness, the truth, out of everything I think.

    Hate  
    "I am a memory come alive: autobiographical writings".
  • My job is unbearable to me because it conflicts with my only desire and my only calling, which is literature. Since I am nothing but literature and can and want to be nothing else, my job will never take possession of me, it may, however, shatter me completely, and this is by no means a remote possibility.

    Franz Kafka (1948). “The diaries of Franz Kafka”, Schocken
  • We all have wings, but they have not been of any avail to us and if we could tear them off, we would do so.

    Franz Kafka (1991). “The Blue Octavo Notebooks”
  • Don't despair, not even over the fact that you don't despair.

    Franz Kafka (1979). “The Basic Kafka”, p.258, Simon and Schuster
  • Association with human beings lures one into self-observation.

    Franz Kafka (1954). “Wedding preparations in the country: and other posthumous prose writings. With notes by Max Brod”
  • The thornbush is the old obstacle in the road. It must catch fire if you want to go further.

    Franz Kafka (1991). “The Blue Octavo Notebooks”
  • The mediation by the serpent was necessary. Evil can seduce man, but cannot become man.

    Men  
    Franz Kafka (1954). “Wedding preparations in the country: and other posthumous prose writings. With notes by Max Brod”
  • It is often safer to be in chains than to be free.

    Franz Kafka (1983). “The Penguin complete novels of Franz Kafka”
  • Idleness is the beginning of all vice, the crown of all virtues.

    Franz Kafka (1991). “The Blue Octavo Notebooks”
  • Tyranny or slavery, born of selfishness, are the two educational methods of parents; all gradations of tyranny or slavery.

    Franz Kafka (2013). “Letters to Friends, Family, and Editors”, p.357, Schocken
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