Quotes from Franz Kafka

Taking walks and observing the field mice.

Like the cogency of the air after a thunderstorm! My qualities before me and overwhelm me, though I may not put up much of a fight against them.

their position is no easy one, nor should one do them the injustice of regarding it as such.

Qué saben los jóvenes? ¡No lo han sufrido! (p. 32)

Cuánto la hemos hecho sufrir por tu forma de ser y cuánto la hiciste tú sufrir por la nuestra!, sin considerar las ocasiones en que tenías razón, porque ella nos protegía, a pesar de que esa protección ha debido muchas veces ser una especie de respuesta subconsciente, manifiesta y silenciosa contra tu autoritarismo. (p. 39)

UykusuzluÄŸum beni nereye götürdü? Çok iyi anlat?lamayan hiçbir ÅŸeye. Eminim...

Knowledge must seep into your blood, into your self, not just into your head, you must live it.

Obstacolul cel mai important îns? în calea c?s?toriei este convingerea, de acum cu neputin?? de dezr?d?cinat, c? pentru întreÈ›inerea unei familii, È™i mai ales pentru îndrumarea ei, sunt necesare.

in my opinion something has been achieved which so closely approximates the truth that it might reassure us both a little and make our living and dying easier

La salvación de la patria sólo depende de nosotros, artesanos y comerciantes; pero no estamos preparados para semejante empresa; tampoco nos hemos jactado nunca de ser capaces de cumplirla. Hay cierta confusión, y esa confusión será nuestra ruina.

En cierta forma cuando escribo estoy a salvo (p. 52)

But is all your earlier life really so remote from you (except, of course, for the landlady, and there's no getting rid of her) that you no longer know how one must fight to make any progress, particularly when you start from so far below? How any method offering any kind of hope must be used?

Toute littérature est assaut contre la frontière.

What a fate, to be condemned to work for a firm where the smallest omission at once gave rise to the gravest suspicion!

Sometimes it seemed amazing that an average lifetime sufficed to learn enough to work here with a modicum of success.

No es necesario que salgas de casa. Quédate en tu mesa y escucha. Ni siquiera escuches, espera solamente. Ni siquiera esperes, quédate solo y en silencio. El mundo llegará a ti para hacerse desenmascarar; no puede dejar de hacerlo, se prosternará extático a tus pies.

Gaunt, without any fever, not cold, not warm, with vacant eyes, without a shirt, the youngster heaved himself up from under the feather bedding, threw his arms around my neck, and whispered in my ear: Doctor, let me die.

Mahkeme, inanc?ndan asla döndürülemez. Burada bir tuvale yan yana bütün yarg?çlar?n resmini yapsam ve siz de kendinizi bu tuvale savunsan?z, gerçek bir mahkeme önündekine oranla daha çok ÅŸans?n?z olur.

my cold, hardly disguised, indestructible, childishly helpless to the point of being ridiculous, brutishly self-satisfied indifference, the indifference of a self-sufficient but coldly imaginative child, I have never found anywhere else; to be sure, it was here too the only protection against a nervous breakdown brought on by fear and a sense of guilt. All that occupied my mind was concern for myself, and this in various ways.

So hätte der Trapezkünstler ungestört leben können, wären nicht die unvermeidlichen Reisen von Ort zu Ort gewesen, die ihm äußerst lästig waren. Zwar sorgte der Impresario dafür, daß der Trapezkünstler von jeder unnötigen Verlängerung seiner Leiden verschont blieb: für die Fahrten in den Städten

Whenever I started doing something you didn't like and you threatened me with the prospect of failure, my reverence for your opinion was so great that failure was, even if only at a later time, inevitable. I lost confidence in my own abilities. I was unsteady, doubtful. The older I got, the more material you could hold against me as proof of my worthlessness; gradually, in a certain regard, you began actually to be right.

En qué terminará esto? —nos preguntamos todos—. ¿Hasta cuando soportaremos esta carga y este tormento? El palacio imperial ha traído a los nómades, pero no sabe como hacer para repelerlos.

He who seeks does not find, but he who does not seek will be found.

In a certain sense you deny the existence of this world. You explain life as a state of rest, a state of rest in motion.