“So then you’re free?’
‘Yes, I’m free,’ said Karl, and nothing seemed more worthless than his freedom.”
― Franz Kafka, quote from Amerika
“It's impossible to defend oneself in the absence of goodwill”
― Franz Kafka, quote from Amerika
“He looked sadly down at the street, as though it were his own bottomless sadness.”
― Franz Kafka, quote from Amerika
“In the morning and in the evening and at night in his dreams, this street was filled with constantly bustling traffic, which seen from above seemed like a continually self-replenishing mixture of distorted human figures and of the roofs of all sorts of vehicles, constantly scattered by new arrivals, out of which there arose a new, stronger, wilder mixture of noise, dust, and smells, and, catching and penetrating it all, a powerful light that was continually dispersed, carried away, and avidly refracted by the mass of objects that made such a physical impression on one's dazzled eye that it seemed as if a glass pane, hanging over the street and converging everything, were being smashed again and again with the utmost force.”
― Franz Kafka, quote from Amerika
“After all, one does not laugh at senator's nephew at the first opportunity that presents itself.”
― Franz Kafka, quote from Amerika
“Karl, oh my Karl!' she cried, as if by gazing at him she were confirming her possession, while Karl saw absolutely nothing and felt uncomfortable in the warm bedding that she seemed to have piled up specially for his benefit.”
― Franz Kafka, quote from Amerika
“He had vented all his woes and now they might as well see the few rags that covered his body, after which they could carry him away.”
― Franz Kafka, quote from Amerika
“[...] jeder nützte seine Macht aus und beschimpfte den Niedrigen. War man einmal daran gewöhnt, klang es nicht anders als das regelmäßige Uhrenschlagen.”
― Franz Kafka, quote from Amerika
“Pero tales cosas por lo visto no se toman en consideración en el momento decisivo, en ninguno de los continentes, ni en Europa ni en América, sino antes bien se toman decisiones según el rapto de furia del primer momento y conforme a la primera sentencia que salga de la boca.”
― Franz Kafka, quote from Amerika
“Zavallı küçük bir göçmen olarak karaya ayak basmış olsaydı, nerede kalırdı acaba? Evet, belki de onu -göçmen yasaları konusundaki bilgisine dayanarak bunu çok olası buluyordu dayı- Birleşik Devletler'e almazlardı bile, artık bir yurdu olmadığını umursamadan eve yollarlardı. Çünkü burada kimse kimseye acımazdı, Karl'ın bu açıdan Amerika hakkında okumuş olduğu şeyler de çok doğruydu; yalnızca şanslı olanlar çevrelerindeki kaygısız yüzler arasında şanslarının gerçekten tadını çıkarıyor gibiydiler.”
― Franz Kafka, quote from Amerika
“Annesi korkunç bir akşam pencerenin önünde Amerika yolculuğunu haber verdiğinde, asla mektup yazmamaya geri dönülmez biçimde yemin etmişti etmesine, ama deneyimsiz bir gencin ettiği böyle bir yemin buradaki yeni koşullarda kaç yazardı! O zamanlar, Amerika'da iki ay kaldıktan sonra Amerikan ordusunda general olacağına da yemin etse olurdu; gerçekteyse New York dışında bir otelde; tavan arasında bir odada iki serseriyle beraberdi, ayrıca burada gerçekten yerini bulmuş olduğunu da itiraf etmeliydi.”
― Franz Kafka, quote from Amerika
“„Dann sind Sie also frei?“ fragte sie. „Ja frei bin ich“, sagte Karl und nichts schien ihm wertloser.”
― Franz Kafka, quote from Amerika
Franz Kafka
Born place: in Prague, Austria-Hungary
Born date July 3, 1883
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“In a car you're always in a compartment, and because you're used to it you don't realize that through that car window everything you see is just more TV. You're a passive observer and it is all moving by you boringly in a frame.
On a cycle the frame is gone. You're completely in contact with it all. You're in the scene, not just watching it anymore, and the sense of presence is overwhelming.”
― Robert M. Pirsig, quote from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
“Physics admits of a lovely unification, not just at the level of fundamental forces, but when considering its extent and implications. Classifications like "optics" or "thermodynamics" are just straitjackets, preventing physicists from seeing countless intersections.”
― Ted Chiang, quote from Stories of Your Life and Others
“Patience is all we have in a land where time is obsolete. I press on, armored stranger. I am not deceiving you. The willows have always grown silent in my wake. I see and feel your ailing mind and it worries me. The night that follows you grows stronger. You still have time to change.”
― H.S. Crow, quote from Lunora and the Monster King
“Hope just means another world might be possible, not promise, not guaranteed. Hope calls for action; action is impossible without hope.”
― Rebecca Solnit, quote from Hope in the Dark: The Untold History of People Power
“Consider this: the human genome codes for about 1,500 different TFs, contains 4,000,000 TF-binding sites, and the average cell uses about 200,000 such sites to generate its distinctive gene-expression profile.5 This is boggling.”
― Robert M. Sapolsky, quote from Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst
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The MagpiesBookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
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