Franz Kafka · 224 pages
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“What am I doing here in this endless winter?”
― Franz Kafka, quote from The Metamorphosis and Other Stories
“And so gentlemen, I learned. Oh, if you have to learn, you learn; if you’re desperate for a way out, you learn; you learn pitilessly. You stand over yourself with a whip in your hand; if there’s the least resistance, you lash yourself.”
― Franz Kafka, quote from The Metamorphosis and Other Stories
“Then birds flew up like a shower of sparks, I followed them with my eyes and saw how they rose in a single breath, until they seemed no longer to be rising but I to be falling...”
― Franz Kafka, quote from The Metamorphosis and Other Stories
“Away in the distance, a train appeared behind the trees, all its compartments were lit, the windows were sure to be open. One of us started singing a ballad, but we all wanted to sing. We sang far quicker than the speed of the train, we swung our arms because our voices weren't enough, our voices got into a tangle where we felt happy. If you mix your voice with others' voices, you feel as though you're caught on a hook. (trans. Michael Hofmann)”
― Franz Kafka, quote from The Metamorphosis and Other Stories
“[He] used to be so insignificant that one literally felt alone in his presence.”
― Franz Kafka, quote from The Metamorphosis and Other Stories
“WHEN Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from troubled dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous insect.”
― Franz Kafka, quote from The Metamorphosis and Other Stories
“It is to us artisans and tradesmen that the salvation of the fatherland is entrusted; but we are not equal to such a task; never, indeed, have we claimed that we were capable of performing it. It is a misunderstanding; and it is proving our ruin.”
― Franz Kafka, quote from The Metamorphosis and Other Stories
“The man from the country has not expected such difficulties; the law, he thinks, should be accessible to everyone and at all times; but as he now takes a closer look at the doorkeeper in his fur coat, at his large pointed nose, his long, sparse, black Tartar beard, he decides that it is better, after all, to wait until he receives permission to enter.”
― Franz Kafka, quote from The Metamorphosis and Other Stories
“It seems hard to remain a bachelor...to model your appearance and behaviour on one or two bachelors remembered from your youth.
That is how it will be, only that in reality it will be you yourself standing there, today and later, with a body and a real head, and so with a brow too, to strike with your hand.”
― Franz Kafka, quote from The Metamorphosis and Other Stories
“Nobody reaches through here, least of all with a message from one who is dead. You, however, sit at your window and dream of the message when evening comes.”
― Franz Kafka, quote from The Metamorphosis and Other Stories
“and if you run off down the long streets in the way you are doing — then for this evening, you have broken utterly from your family, who fade away into insubstantiality, while you yourself, absolutely solid, black and clear-cut, slapping your thighs, rise and
assume your true form.”
― Franz Kafka, quote from The Metamorphosis and Other Stories
“Selfishness is one of the surest signs of profound unhappiness.”
― Franz Kafka, quote from The Metamorphosis and Other Stories
“...we don't have to fly straight into the sun, but we do need to creep into some tidy little place on earth where the sun sometime shines and where we can find a little warmth for ourselves.”
― Franz Kafka, quote from The Metamorphosis and Other Stories
Franz Kafka
Born place: in Prague, Austria-Hungary
Born date July 3, 1883
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“I realized that my battle to survive this war would have to be fought inside of me.”
― Immaculée Ilibagiza, quote from Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust
“As always, Arbeely’s heart squeezed at the sight of her, a not unpleasant ache, as if to say, Ah well. Like many of the men of the neighborhood, he was a little bit in love with Maryam Faddoul. What luck to be that Sayeed, her admirers thought, to live always in the light of her bright eyes and understanding smile! But none would dream of approaching her, even those who regarded the conventions of propriety as obstacles to be overcome. It was clear that Maryam’s smile shone from her belief in the better nature of those around her. To demand more of that smile for themselves would only serve to extinguish it.”
― Helene Wecker, quote from The Golem and the Jinni
“Let us have wine and woman, mirth and laughter,
Sermons and soda water the day after.
Man, being reasonable, must get drunk;
The best of life is but intoxication:
Glory, the grape, love, gold, in these are sunk
The hopes of all men, and of every nation;
Without their sap, how branchless were the trunk
Of life's strange tree, so fruitful on occasion:
But to return--Get very drunk; and when
You wake with head-ache, you shall see what then.”
― George Gordon Byron, quote from Don Juan
“Silence then, "Are you smashed?"
"Completely and totally."
"What are you wearing?"
"Who cares?"
"I do."
"Why?"
"'Cause you're smashed, you been with your girls, you somehow got riled up about somethin' and once I settle you down about whatever's aggravating you, I'm gonna rile you up a different way.”
― Kristen Ashley, quote from Motorcycle Man
“What do you do when you're in love with the last man in the world you can have? You plan a life, a real life, without him.”
― Marisa de los Santos, quote from Love Walked in
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