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The Kafka paradox: art depends on truth, but truth, being indivisable, cannot know itself: to tell the truth is to lie. thus the writer is the truth, and yet when he speakes he lies.

Franz Kafka

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Franz Kafka
Age: 41 †
Born: 1883
Born: July 3
Died: 1924
Died: July 3
Aphorist
Claims Adjuster
Diarist
Fabulist
Lawyer
Novelist
Poet Lawyer
Prosaist
Screenwriter
Short Story Writer
Translator
Writer
Praha
František Kafka
Kafka
Lying
Tell
Art
Kafka
Cannot
Paradox
Truth
Thus
Lies
Depends
Writer

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If all responsibility is imposed on you, then you may want to exploit the moment and want to be overwhelmed by the responsibilityyet if you try, you will notice that nothing was imposed on you, but that you are yourself this responsibility.
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A book must be the ax for the frozen sea within us.
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Photography concentrates one's eye on the superficial. For that reason it obscures the hidden life which glimmers through the outlines of things like a play of light and shade. One can't catch that even with the sharpest lens.
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Last night I dreamed about you. What happened in detail I can hardly remember, all I know is that we kept merging into one another. I was you, you were me. Finally you somehow caught fire.
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I never imagined that so many days would ultimately make such a small life.
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Association with human beings lures one into self-observation.
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Anybody who preserves the ability to recognize beauty will never get old.
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German is my mother tongue and as such more natural to me, but I consider Czech much more affectionate, which is why your letter removes several uncertainties I see you more clearly, the movements of your body, your hands, so quick, so resolute, it’s almost like a meeting.
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The man in ecstasy and the man drowning: both raise their arms.
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Youth is happy because it has the capacity to see beauty.
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The existence of the writer is an argument against the existence of the soul, for the soul has obviously taken flight from the real ego, but not improved itself, only become a writer.
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Knowledge we have. Anyone who strives for it with particular intensity is suspect of striving against it.
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Anyone who renounces the world must love all men, for he renounces their world too. He thus begins to have some inkling of the true nature of man, which cannot but be loved, always assuming that one is its peer.
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The mediation by the serpent was necessary. Evil can seduce man, but cannot become man.
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As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.
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There are two main human sins from which all the others derive: impatience and indolence. It was because of impatience that they were expelled from Paradise it is because of indolence that they do not return. Yet perhaps there is only one major sin: impatience. Because of impatience they were expelled, because of impatience they do not return.
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One tells as few lies as possible only by telling as few lies as possible, and not by having the least possible opportunity to do so.
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Isolation is a way to know ourselves.
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Should I be grateful or should I curse the fact that despite all misfortune I can still feel love, an unearthly love but still for earthly objects.
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