Quote

. . . The books we need are the kind that act upon us like a misfortune, that make us suffer like the death of someone we love more than ourselves, that make us feel as though we were on the verge of suicide, or lost in a forest remote from all human habitation-a book should serve as an axe for the frozen sea within us.

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
FrantiĊĦek Kafka
Kafka
Needs
Death
Sea
Misfortune
Kind
Someone
Losing
Frozen
Make
Human
Books
Misfortunes
Love
Humans
Within
Forest
Like
Book
Though
Forests
Habitation
Need
Suffering
Suicide
Verge
Feel
Upon
Suffer
Suicidal
Feels
Lost
Serve
Remote

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He was a tool of the boss, without brains or backbone.
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I am too tired, I must try to rest and sleep, otherwise I am lost in every respect. What an effort to keep alive! Erecting a monument does not require an expenditure of so much strength.
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In man's struggle against the world, bet on the world.
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Man cannot live without a continuous confidence in something indestructible within himself.
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The true way goes over a line that, rather than spanning heights, is hardly above the ground. It appears more decidedly to make one trip than to be walked along.
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The spirit becomes free only when it ceases to be a support.
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In the fight between you and the world, back the world.
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All I am is literature, and I am not able or willing to be anything else.
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Life's splendor forever lies in wait about each one of us in all its fullness, but veiled from view, deep down, invisible, far off. It is there, though, not hostile, not reluctant, not deaf. If you summon it by the right word, by its right name, it will come.
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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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It would have been so pointless to kill himself that, even if he had wanted to, the pointlessness would have made him unable.
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The delights of this life are not its own, but our fear of the ascent into a higher life the torments of this life are not its own, but our self-torment because of that fear.
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One has just been sent out as a biblical dove, has found nothing green, and slips back into the darkness of the Ark
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We all have wings, but they have not been of any avail to us and if we could tear them off, we would do so.
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it was like this. the brain could no longer bear the worries and pains that were imposed on it. it said: i'm giving up but if there is anyone else here who is interested in preserving the whole, let him assume part of my burden and it will be alright for a bit.
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Each of us has his own way of emerging from the underworld, mine is by writing. That's why the only way I can keep going, if at all, is by writing, not through rest and sleep. I am far more likely to achieve peace of mind through writing than the capacity to write through peace.
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If the literature we are reading does not wake us, why then do we read it? A literary work must be an ice-axe to break the sea frozen inside us.
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Love has as few problems as a motor car. The only problems are the driver, the passengers, and the road.
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For words are magical formulae. They leave finger marks be hind on the brain, which in the twinkling of an eye become the footprints of history. One ought to watch one' s every word.
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