Franz Kafka

The specter of death is not terrible, it is the inability to live that is terrible.

I am free and that is why I am lost.

Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy.

One day, you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.

The whole visible world is perhaps nothing other than the rationalization of a man who wants to rest for a moment.

I suffer from myself.

Anyone who cannot cope with 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.

Evil is what is good for other people.

The further you get away from the thing, the more it is distorted.

It is only because of their stupidity that they are able to be so sure of themselves.

I have not been able to write a single line for two months. My head is empty, my heart is empty, my soul is empty.

The greatest joy is to be able to overcome your fear.

It is a terrible thing to be alone in the world.

I am constantly trying to communicate something incommunicable, to explain something inexplicable, to tell about something I have in my bones which can be given neither a name nor any real description.

The fact that I am not happy does not mean that I am not grateful.

I am afraid of everything, even of the good.

The only way to deal with the world is to be a part of it, to live in it, and to accept it as it is.

I am not a writer, I am a written one.

The man who does not know how to be silent does not know how to speak.

I am constantly aware of the fact that I am not living a real life.