Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka
Franz Kafkawas a German-language writer of novels and short stories who is widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work, which fuses elements of realism and the fantastic, typically features isolated protagonists faced by bizarre or surrealistic predicaments and incomprehensible social-bureaucratic powers, and has been interpreted as exploring themes of alienation, existential anxiety, guilt, and absurdity. His best known works include "Die Verwandlung", Der Process, and Das Schloss. The term Kafkaesque has entered the English...
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth3 July 1883
CityPrague, Czech Republic
A man of action forced into a state of thought is unhappy until he can get out of it.
Logic may indeed be unshakeable, but it cannot withstand a man who is determined to live.
Utterance does not in principle mean a weakening of conviction--that would not be anything to be deplored--but a weakness of conviction.
The crows maintain that a single crow could destroy the heavens. There is no doubt of that, but it proves nothing against the heavens, for heaven simply means: the impossibility of crows.
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.
Believing in progress does not mean believing that any progress has yet been made.
The man in ecstasy and the man drowning - both throw up their arms. The first to signify harmony, the second to signify strife with the elements.
I see, these books are probably law books, and it is an essential part of the justice dispensed here that you should be condemned not only in innocence but also in ignorance.
In me, by myself, without human relationship, there are no visible lies. The limited circle is pure.
Anything that has real and lasting value is always a gift from within.
A belief is like a guillotine, just as heavy, just as light.
I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself.
I'm thinking only of my illness and my health, though both, the first as well as the second, are you.
The fact that our task is exactly commensurate with our life gives it the appearance of being infinite.