Franz Kafka (1883 – 1924) was a prominent Czechoslovak author who was born in Prague.
Of Jewish origin, Kafka’s work influenced great authors of world literature, such as Jorge Luis Borges, Gabriel García Márquez, Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre and Milan Kundera. Among his most read and memorable works are The Trial (1925), The Metamorphosis (1915).
His literary style was associated with expressionism, magical realism and existentialism. In his novels he attests to a gray vision of the future and human life, greatly influenced by the context of World War II and his probable schizoid personality disorder.
In today’s article Let’s get to know the best famous quotes and phrases from Franz Kafka to get closer to his literary and personal universe, understand his work and his thoughts through various fragments of his books and letters.
1. Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind a trail of bureaucracy.
It could well be a way of seeing politics as a mere game of mirages and wills that end up coming to nothing.
2. Youth is happy because it has the ability to see beauty. Anyone who retains the ability to see beauty never ages.
Enthusiasm and its strong link with feeling young.
3. A man’s gesture of bitterness is often just the petrified embarrassment of a child.
A pretty apt metaphor.
4. In your fight against the rest of the world, I advise you to take the side of the rest of the world.
One of those phrases from Franz Kafka that summarizes a selfless philosophy.
5. All knowledge, all questions and answers are found in the dog.
His favorite animal, all honesty and spontaneity.
6. Leisure is the father of all vices, and is the crowning of all virtues.
A duality difficult to express better.
7. Possessing does not exist, only being exists: that being that aspires until the last breath, until suffocation.
Having doesn’t mean anything.
8. Reflecting calmly, very calmly, is better than making desperate decisions.
Reflection always invites us to make more considered and intelligent decisions, without being influenced by emotions.
9. Don Quixote’s misfortune was not his fantasy, but Sancho Panza.
About the work of Miguel de Cervantes: the worst thing that happened to Don Quixote is knowing the reality of things, a stubborn, boring and lethal realism.
10. From a certain point there is no return. That’s the point we have to reach.
Metaphorical phrase from Franz Kafka that can be applied to a multitude of circumstances.
11. Do not despair, not even because you do not despair. When all seems over, new forces arise. This means that you live.
One of his few optimistic and hopeful phrases.
12. Literature is always an expedition to the truth.
Despite being works of fiction, there is a lot of reality in each story that is explained.
13. Believing means releasing in oneself what is indestructible or better: freeing oneself or better yet: being indestructible or better still: being.
Vitality resides in the hope of believing, according to Kafka.
14. If the world opposes you, you must side with the world.
You’re probably wrong, or at least it should seem like you’re not. Dissimulate.
15. Simply do not overestimate what I have written; Otherwise what I still hope to write would become unattainable to me.
A way to effectively value your achievements, to strive to reach even higher levels.
16. I must confess that I once greatly envied someone because he was loved, cared for, defended from reason and force and because he lay in peace under the flowers. I always have envy within reach.
A sign of vulnerability.
17. A book should be the ax that breaks the frozen sea within us.
About reading and its powers.
18. Each man carries a room within him. It is a fact confirmed by our own hearing. When you walk quickly and listen, especially at night when everything around us is silent, you can hear, for example, the tremors of a poorly hung wall mirror.
An interesting reflection about human perception.
19. It is a blow because it will take away my time and I need all the time and a thousand times more, preferably all the time that exists, to think about you, to breathe in you.
20. He who seeks does not find, but he who does not seek is found.
To find it we must remain attentive, but without falling into obsession.
21. Many times it is safer to be chained than to be free.
Another phrase from Franz Kafka in which we glimpse his timid spirit.
22. Everything you are looking for is also looking for you.
A truly poetic phrase about the objectives and goals we have in life.
23. August 2, 1914: Germany has declared war on Russia. In the afternoon, swimming class.
One of the most remembered phrases from his diaries, written at the dawn of the First World War.
24. I’m doing it wrong, I’m doing it right; what you prefer.
Reality can be conceived in different ways by various people.
25. I never imagined that so many days would finally make such a small life.
A truly disturbing phrase that is truly integrated into his work.
26. The meaning of life is that it stops.
All of this great author’s work is permeated with a notable pessimism.
27. There are times when I am convinced that I am not suitable for any human relationship.
The greatest writers always had problems integrating into society.
28. Religions are lost like men.
Kafka was always very critical of the religion of his time.
29. The single man resigns himself apparently of his own free will and in the middle of his life to an empty space, increasingly smaller. And he dies, the coffin is enough for him.
A very pessimistic view of single life.
30. The true enemy transmits limitless value to you.
We can learn a lot from our greatest enemies.
31. The history of men is a moment between two steps of a walker.
A truly poetic and discouraging reflection on human nature.
32. Isolation is a way of knowing ourselves.
Something that those who have been locked up in prison for a long time know perfectly well.
33. I no longer know if I want to drown in love, in vodka or in the sea.
Kafka’s life was just as distressing and discouraging as his writings.
34. Fortune is understanding that the ground you stand on cannot be larger than the two feet that cover it.
By valuing what we have at every moment in its proper measure, we will feel lucky.
35. Better to have and not need, than to need and not have.
A vision and philosophy of life that we can put into practice daily.
36. If the book we read doesn’t wake us up with a punch to the head, why read it?
Many of his quotes speak of the extraordinary power that books exert on readers.
37. It is only because of their stupidity that some can be so sure of themselves.
The wisest people are those who doubt the most.
38. Like a path in autumn: as soon as it is swept, it is covered with dry leaves again.
All of Kafka’s work is full of truly poetic phrases.
39. I’m tired, I can’t think about anything and I just want to put my face in your lap, feel your hand on my head and stay like that for all eternity.
A dedication of love that we can send to that special person.
40. I do not speak as I believe, I do not think as I should, and everything continues in helpless darkness.
Throughout his life, Kafka experienced truly distressing and depressive episodes.
41. Start with what is right instead of what is acceptable.
A good way to start doing things right.
42. Many books are like the key to unknown chambers within one’s own castle.
Kafka tells us in many of his writings about the wonders of reading.
43. Everything you love, you will eventually lose, but in the end, love will return in a different form.
An immortal plea in favor of love.
44. I am free and that is why I am lost.
Existentialism was always one of the most common themes in his work.
45. Just because your doctor has a name for your illness doesn’t mean he knows what it is.
A rather pessimistic view of medicine.
46. Don’t waste time looking for an obstacle, there may not be one.
On many occasions we are the ones who create our own problems.
47. You are both the silence and the confusion of my heart.
A truly beautiful dedication that perfectly summarizes the contradictions in love.
48. Roads are made by walking.
An idea that is repeated throughout the history of humanity in different cultures.
49. A faith is like a guillotine, so heavy, so light…
A truly surprising comparison, like many of the themes in his work.
50. I have the true sense of myself only when I am unbearably unhappy.
Some of his phrases are full of optimism and positivity.
