Quotes from Franz Kafka

Nur die neue Vorstellung erweckt ästhetische Freude, sondern jede Vorstellung, die nicht in die Sphäre des Willens fällt, erweckt ästhetische Freude. Sagt man es aber doch, dann würde es bedeuten, nur eine neue Vorstellung können wir derart aufnehmen, daß unsere Willenssphäre nicht berührt wird. Nun ist es aber sicher, daß es neue Vorstellungen gibt, welche wir nicht ästhetisch werten.

I may have arrived late, but I'm here now.

Evening in the garden of the Askanischer Hof. Ate rice a la Trautmannsdorf and a peach. A man drinking wine watched my attempts to cut the unripe little peach with my knife. I couldn't. Stricken with shame under the old man's eyes, I let the peach go completely and ten times leafed through Die Fliegenden Blatter. I waited to see if he wouldn't at last turn away. Finally I collected all my strength and in defiance of him bit into the completely juiceless and expensive peach.

Ich schreibe anders als ich rede, ich rede anders als ich denke, ich denke anders als ich denken soll und so geht es weiter bis ins tiefste Dunkel. (10. Juli 1914)

The animal wrests the whip from the master and flails itself in order to become the master

Ecco, mia cara ragazza, di nuovo è sera dopo un pomeriggio passato vegliando (pomeriggio passato vegliando ha un suono peggiore che notte passata vegliando), non scrivo più nulla, tranne che a questa ragazza alla quale vorrei scrivere di continuo, della quale vorrei sempre sentir parlare, e stare sempre con lei e spegnermi in lei.

When I was lying on the sofa and there was loud talking in the rooms on both sides of me, on the left only by women, on the right more by men, I had the impression that they are crude Negro-like unappeasable beings, who don't know what they're saying and only talk to make the air move, who lift their faces while talking and gaze after the words they speak.

Rage is something a child has when his house of cards collapses because a grown-up has shaken the table. But the house of cards didn't collapse because the table was shaken, but because it was a house of cards. A real house doesn't collapse even if the table is chopped into firewood; it doesn't need a foundation from somewhere outside.

he had recently noted a certain tendency toward self-pity, an almost irresistible urge to give in to every desire

they're probably law books, and it's in the nature of this judicial system that one is condemned not only in innocence but also in ignorance.

My grandfather used to say, Life is amazingly short. Now, looking back, it all appears so crowded together that I can hardly see how a young man could, for example, make up his mind to ride to the next village without fearing that, even without any special misfortunes, a normal, contentedly spent life might entirely run its course long before such a journey was complete.

Ein Buch muß die Axt sein für das gefrorene Meer in uns." — Franz Kafka

Hace poco me preguntaste por qué digo que te tengo miedo. Como de costumbre, no supe darte una respuesta

There are many fine details in which the court gets lost, but in the end it reaches into some place where originally there was nothing and pulls enormous guilt out of it.

There are obstacles, questionable matters, disappointments, but this merely shows, as we already knew, that nothing is given to you on a platter, that you yourself have to fight for every trifle, another reason for being proud, not dejected.

Nie jest konieczne, by? wyszed? z domu. Pozosta? przy stole i s?uchaj. Nawet nie s?uchaj, czekaj tylko. Nawet nie czekaj, b?dz ca?kiem cicho i sam. ?wiat sam si? przed tob? ods?oni, nie mo?e by? inaczej, b?dzie wi? si? przed tob? w ekstazie.

Cuando uno se ha despedido definitivamente, como yo había hecho, y este hecho ha sido aceptado por el otro, entonces lo apropiado es resolver rápidamente lo pendiente y no hacerle padecer inútilmente al otro la silenciosa presencia.

Instead I have always hidden from you, in my room, among my books, with crazy friends, or with extravagant ideas.

No,' said the priest, 'one doesn't have to take everything as the truth, one just has to accept it as necessary.' 'A depressing opinion,' said K. 'It means that the world is founded on untruth.

They think you are guilty. Your trial will perhaps not get any farther than one of the lower courts. At least for the moment they think your guilt is proven.' 'But I'm not guilty,' said K., 'it's a mistake. How can a person be guilty anyway? We're all human, every single one of us.' 'That is correct,' said the priest, 'but that's the way guilty people talk.

onu yaln?zca unutmak deÄŸil, çok daha ötesi. Çünkü insan unuttuÄŸuyla yeniden tan??abilir.

28. Je?li raz si? wch?on??o z?o, to ono ju? nie ??da, by mu wierzono.

Cómo soportas este mundo, noble corazón y dulces entrañas?

What was always incomprehensible to me was your total lack of feeling for the suffering and shame you could inflict on me with your words and judgments. It was as though you had no notion of your power.