German-speaking author Franz Kafka was born in 1883. He is widely regarded as one of the most provocative and consequential authors of modern times. We hope you enjoy this compilation of 40 Franz Kafka Quotes on Love, Life, and Death that we have gathered throughout the years to be a source of inspiration and wisdom.
Franz Kafka Quotes on Love, Life, and Death
- Youth is happy because it has the ability to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.
- “Youth is happy because it has the ability to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.” – Franz Kafka
- “Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before.” – Franz Kafka
- “He who seeks does not find, but he who does not seek will be found.” – Franz Kafka
- “A belief is like a guillotine, just as heavy, just as light.” – Franz Kafka
- 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.
- “What do I have in common with the Jews? I don’t even have anything in common with myself.” – Franz Kafka
- “Start with what is right rather than what is acceptable.” – Franz Kafka
- It’s only because of their stupidity that they’re able to be so sure of themselves.
- “A book should be an ice-axe to break the frozen sea within us.” – Franz Kafka
- Many a book is like a key to unknown chambers within the castle of one’s own self.
- “There is an infinite amount of hope in the universe … but not for us.” – Franz Kafka
- By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired.
- He is terribly afraid of dying because he hasn’t yet lived.
- There are two cardinal sins from which all others spring: impatience and laziness.
- “The history of mankind is the instant between two strides taken by a traveler.” – Franz Kafka
- Start with what is right rather than what is acceptable.
- We live in an age that is so possessed by demons, that soon we shall only be able to do goodness and justice in the deepest secrecy as if it were a crime.
- Association with human beings lures one into self-observation.
- “In the struggle between yourself and the world second the world.” – Franz Kafka
- “A first sign of the beginning of understanding is the wish to die” – Franz Kafka
- They’re talking about things of which they don’t have the slightest understanding, anyway. It’s only because of their stupidity that they’re able to be so sure of themselves.
- From a certain point onward there is no longer any turning back. That is the point that must be reached.
- “I usually solve problems by letting them devour me.” – Franz Kafka
- 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.
- I do not read advertisements. I would spend all of my time wanting things.
- “I can love only what I can place so high above me that I cannot reach it.” – Franz Kafka
- Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before.
- The first sign of the beginning of understanding is the wish to die.
- If you become involved with me, you will be throwing yourself into the abyss.
- I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself.
- “Don’t despair, not even over the fact that you don’t despair.” – Franz Kafka
- The mediation by the serpent was necessary. Evil can seduce man, but cannot become a man.
- “Anything that has real and lasting value is always a gift from within.” – Franz Kafka
- Idleness is the beginning of all vice, the crown of all virtues.
- “Better to have, and not need, than to need, and not have.” – Franz Kafka
- Do not waste your time looking for an obstacle – maybe there is none.
- “In argument, similes are like songs in love; they describe much but prove nothing.” – Franz Kafka
- He who seeks does not find, but he who does not seek will be found.
- “Do not waste your time looking for an obstacle – maybe there is none.” – Franz Kafka
- I have the true feeling of myself only when I am unbearably unhappy.
- “Association with human beings lures one into self-observation.” – Franz Kafka
- “One of the first signs of the beginning of understanding is the wish to die.” – Franz Kafka
