Franz Kafka was born on July 3, 1883, in Prague, Czechia. He was a German-speaking novelist and short-story writer widely regarded as one of the most influential figures of 20th-century literature. His work revolutionized modern literature by exploring themes of alienation, existential anxiety, and bureaucratic absurdity. He is best known for The Metamorphosis, The Trial, and The Castle. His legacy includes defining the term "Kafkaesque" and influencing modernism and existentialism. May these Franz Kafka quotes and sayings offer you insights to help you never lose hope despite life's absurdity.
1. “Start with what is right rather than what is acceptable.” – Franz Kafka
2. “You are the knife I turn inside myself; that is love.” – Franz Kafka
3. “I am free and that is why I am lost.” – Franz Kafka
4. “God gives the nuts, but he does not crack them.” – Franz Kafka
5. “Youth is happy because it has the ability to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.” – Franz Kafka
6. “I am forever chained to myself; that's what I am, and that's what I must try to live with.” – Franz Kafka
7. “There is a destination but no way there; what we refer to as way is hesitation.” – Franz Kafka
8. “Love is the only way to grasp another human being in the innermost core of his personality.” – Franz Kafka
9. “I am constantly trying to communicate something incommunicable, to explain something inexplicable, to tell about something I only feel in my bones and which can only be experienced in those bones.” – Franz Kafka
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10. “In the fight between you and the world, back the world.” – Franz Kafka
11. “So long as you have food in your mouth, you have solved all questions for the time being.” – Franz Kafka
12. “I was ashamed of myself when I realized life was a costume party and I attended with my real face.” – Franz Kafka
13. “All human errors are impatience, a premature breaking off of methodical procedure.” – Franz Kafka
14. “If I could drown in sleep as I drown in fear I would be no longer alive.” – Franz Kafka
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15. “By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it.” – Franz Kafka
16. “And actually it is not you at all I love, but rather the existence you have bestowed on me.” – Franz Kafka
17. “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
18. “Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before.” – Franz Kafka
19. “I am more uncertain than I ever was; I feel only the power of life. And I am senselessly empty.” – Franz Kafka
.jpg "Famous quotes and sayings by Franz Kafka")
20. “He who seeks does not find, but he who does not seek will be found.” – Franz Kafka
21. “Everything that is not literature bores me and I hate it.” – Franz Kafka
22. “Life's splendor forever lies in wait about each one of us in all its fullness, but veiled from view, deep down, invisible, far off.” – Franz Kafka
23. “You are at once both the quiet and the confusion of my heart.” – Franz Kafka
24. “I have hardly anything in common with myself and should stand very quietly in a corner, content that I can breathe.” – Franz Kafka
.jpg "Famous quotes and sayings by Franz Kafka")
25. “By imposing too great a responsibility, or rather, all responsibility, on yourself, you crush yourself.” – Franz Kafka
26. “From a certain point onward there is no longer any turning back. That is the point that must be reached.” – Franz Kafka
27. “I no longer know If I wish to drown myself in love, vodka or the sea.” – Franz Kafka
28. “Being alone has a power over me that never fails. My interior dissolves (for the time being only superficially) and is ready to release what lies deeper.” – Franz Kafka
29. “I am empty and futile in every corner of my being, even in my unhappiness. Life is merely terrible; I feel it as few others do. Often—and in my inmost self perhaps all the time—I doubt whether I am a human being.” – Franz Kafka
30. “The meaning of life is that it stops.” – Franz Kafka
More Best Franz Kafka Quotes about Life
31. “Suffering is the positive element in this world, indeed it is the only link between this world and the positive.” – Franz Kafka
32. “He is terribly afraid of dying because he hasn't lived yet.” – Franz Kafka
33. “Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.” – Franz Kafka
34. “Books are a narcotic.” – Franz Kafka
35. “How about if I sleep a little bit longer and forget all this nonsense?” – Franz Kafka
36. “One of the first signs of the beginning of understanding is the wish to die.” – Franz Kafka
37. “I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself.” – Franz Kafka
38. “Idleness is the beginning of all vice, the crown of all virtues.” – Franz Kafka
39. “All that you are seeking is also seeking you.” – Franz Kafka
40. “To die would mean nothing else than to surrender a nothing to the nothing.” – Franz Kafka
41. “My loneliness is full of people.” – Franz Kafka
42. “It is often safer to be in chains than to be free.” – Franz Kafka
43. “One reads in order to ask questions.” – Franz Kafka
44. “I have the true feeling of myself only when I am unbearably unhappy.” – Franz Kafka
45. “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
46. “I never wish to be easily defined. I’d rather float over other people’s minds as something strictly fluid and non-perceivable; more like a transparent, paradoxically iridescent creature rather than an actual person.” – Franz Kafka
47. “Suicide is irrational because you always kill yourself too late.” – Franz Kafka
48. “One advantage in keeping a diary is that you become aware with reassuring clarity of the changes which you constantly suffer.” – Franz Kafka
49. “Better to have, and not need, than to need, and not have.” – Franz Kafka
50. “I was wise, if you like, because I was prepared for death at any moment.” – Franz Kafka
51. “If my goal in life is to die, does that still give my life meaning?” – Franz Kafka
52. “Association with human beings lures one into self-observation.” – Franz Kafka
53. “There are times when I am convinced I am unfit for any human relationship.” – Franz Kafka
54. “Test yourself on mankind. It is something that makes the doubter doubt, the believer believe.” – Franz Kafka
55. “Isolation is a way to know ourselves.” – Franz Kafka
56. “The spirit becomes free only when it ceases to be a support.” – Franz Kafka
57. “I usually solve problems by letting them devour me.” – Franz Kafka
58. “The history of mankind is the instant between two strides taken by a traveler.” – Franz Kafka
59. “Do not waste your time looking for an obstacle—maybe there is none.” – Franz Kafka
60. “My guiding principle is this: Guilt is never to be doubted.” – Franz Kafka
61. “Evil is whatever distracts.” – Franz Kafka
62. “I do not read advertisements. I would spend all of my time wanting things.” – Franz Kafka
63. “I lack nothing. I only needed myself.” – Franz Kafka
64. “In theory there is a possibility of perfect happiness: To believe in the indestructible element within one, and not to strive towards it.” – Franz Kafka
65. “If you become involved with me, you will be throwing yourself into the abyss.” – Franz Kafka
66. “Perhaps there is only one cardinal sin: impatience. Because of impatience we were driven out of Paradise, because of impatience we cannot return.” – Franz Kafka
67. “I can love only what I can place so high above me that I cannot reach it.” – Franz Kafka
68. “In a certain sense the Good is comfortless.” – Franz Kafka
69. “One idiot is one idiot. Two idiots are two idiots. Ten thousand idiots are a political party.” – Franz Kafka
70. “The thornbush is the old obstacle in the road. It must catch fire if you want to go further.” – Franz Kafka
Share these Famous Franz Kafka Quotes on Life with your friends, family, and loved ones to inspire them as well.
2. “You are the knife I turn inside myself; that is love.” – Franz Kafka
3. “I am free and that is why I am lost.” – Franz Kafka
4. “God gives the nuts, but he does not crack them.” – Franz Kafka
5. “Youth is happy because it has the ability to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.” – Franz Kafka
6. “I am forever chained to myself; that's what I am, and that's what I must try to live with.” – Franz Kafka
7. “There is a destination but no way there; what we refer to as way is hesitation.” – Franz Kafka
8. “Love is the only way to grasp another human being in the innermost core of his personality.” – Franz Kafka
9. “I am constantly trying to communicate something incommunicable, to explain something inexplicable, to tell about something I only feel in my bones and which can only be experienced in those bones.” – Franz Kafka
11. “So long as you have food in your mouth, you have solved all questions for the time being.” – Franz Kafka
12. “I was ashamed of myself when I realized life was a costume party and I attended with my real face.” – Franz Kafka
13. “All human errors are impatience, a premature breaking off of methodical procedure.” – Franz Kafka
14. “If I could drown in sleep as I drown in fear I would be no longer alive.” – Franz Kafka
16. “And actually it is not you at all I love, but rather the existence you have bestowed on me.” – Franz Kafka
17. “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
18. “Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before.” – Franz Kafka
19. “I am more uncertain than I ever was; I feel only the power of life. And I am senselessly empty.” – Franz Kafka
21. “Everything that is not literature bores me and I hate it.” – Franz Kafka
22. “Life's splendor forever lies in wait about each one of us in all its fullness, but veiled from view, deep down, invisible, far off.” – Franz Kafka
23. “You are at once both the quiet and the confusion of my heart.” – Franz Kafka
24. “I have hardly anything in common with myself and should stand very quietly in a corner, content that I can breathe.” – Franz Kafka
26. “From a certain point onward there is no longer any turning back. That is the point that must be reached.” – Franz Kafka
27. “I no longer know If I wish to drown myself in love, vodka or the sea.” – Franz Kafka
28. “Being alone has a power over me that never fails. My interior dissolves (for the time being only superficially) and is ready to release what lies deeper.” – Franz Kafka
29. “I am empty and futile in every corner of my being, even in my unhappiness. Life is merely terrible; I feel it as few others do. Often—and in my inmost self perhaps all the time—I doubt whether I am a human being.” – Franz Kafka
30. “The meaning of life is that it stops.” – Franz Kafka
More Best Franz Kafka Quotes about Life
31. “Suffering is the positive element in this world, indeed it is the only link between this world and the positive.” – Franz Kafka
32. “He is terribly afraid of dying because he hasn't lived yet.” – Franz Kafka
33. “Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.” – Franz Kafka
34. “Books are a narcotic.” – Franz Kafka
35. “How about if I sleep a little bit longer and forget all this nonsense?” – Franz Kafka
36. “One of the first signs of the beginning of understanding is the wish to die.” – Franz Kafka
37. “I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself.” – Franz Kafka
38. “Idleness is the beginning of all vice, the crown of all virtues.” – Franz Kafka
39. “All that you are seeking is also seeking you.” – Franz Kafka
40. “To die would mean nothing else than to surrender a nothing to the nothing.” – Franz Kafka
41. “My loneliness is full of people.” – Franz Kafka
42. “It is often safer to be in chains than to be free.” – Franz Kafka
43. “One reads in order to ask questions.” – Franz Kafka
44. “I have the true feeling of myself only when I am unbearably unhappy.” – Franz Kafka
45. “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
46. “I never wish to be easily defined. I’d rather float over other people’s minds as something strictly fluid and non-perceivable; more like a transparent, paradoxically iridescent creature rather than an actual person.” – Franz Kafka
47. “Suicide is irrational because you always kill yourself too late.” – Franz Kafka
48. “One advantage in keeping a diary is that you become aware with reassuring clarity of the changes which you constantly suffer.” – Franz Kafka
49. “Better to have, and not need, than to need, and not have.” – Franz Kafka
50. “I was wise, if you like, because I was prepared for death at any moment.” – Franz Kafka
51. “If my goal in life is to die, does that still give my life meaning?” – Franz Kafka
52. “Association with human beings lures one into self-observation.” – Franz Kafka
53. “There are times when I am convinced I am unfit for any human relationship.” – Franz Kafka
54. “Test yourself on mankind. It is something that makes the doubter doubt, the believer believe.” – Franz Kafka
55. “Isolation is a way to know ourselves.” – Franz Kafka
56. “The spirit becomes free only when it ceases to be a support.” – Franz Kafka
57. “I usually solve problems by letting them devour me.” – Franz Kafka
58. “The history of mankind is the instant between two strides taken by a traveler.” – Franz Kafka
59. “Do not waste your time looking for an obstacle—maybe there is none.” – Franz Kafka
60. “My guiding principle is this: Guilt is never to be doubted.” – Franz Kafka
61. “Evil is whatever distracts.” – Franz Kafka
62. “I do not read advertisements. I would spend all of my time wanting things.” – Franz Kafka
63. “I lack nothing. I only needed myself.” – Franz Kafka
64. “In theory there is a possibility of perfect happiness: To believe in the indestructible element within one, and not to strive towards it.” – Franz Kafka
65. “If you become involved with me, you will be throwing yourself into the abyss.” – Franz Kafka
66. “Perhaps there is only one cardinal sin: impatience. Because of impatience we were driven out of Paradise, because of impatience we cannot return.” – Franz Kafka
67. “I can love only what I can place so high above me that I cannot reach it.” – Franz Kafka
68. “In a certain sense the Good is comfortless.” – Franz Kafka
69. “One idiot is one idiot. Two idiots are two idiots. Ten thousand idiots are a political party.” – Franz Kafka
70. “The thornbush is the old obstacle in the road. It must catch fire if you want to go further.” – Franz Kafka
Share these Famous Franz Kafka Quotes on Life with your friends, family, and loved ones to inspire them as well.