Quote

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.

Franz Kafka

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Doe
Ice
Must
Wake
Work
Sea
Inside
Break
Literature
Reading
Frozen
Read
Literary

More quotes by Franz Kafka

Image
I dream of a grave, deep and narrow, where we could clasp each other in our arms as with clamps, and I would hide my face in you and you would hide your face in me, and nobody would ever see us any more
Franz Kafka
Image
Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before.
Franz Kafka
Image
The Diabolical sometimes assumes the aspect of the Good, or even embodies itself completely in its form. If this remains concealedfrom me, I am of course defeated, for this Good is more tempting than the genuine Good.
Franz Kafka
Image
It would have been so pointless to kill himself that, even if he had wanted to, the pointlessness would have made him unable.
Franz Kafka
Image
Simply wait, be quiet, still The world will freely offer itself to you.
Franz Kafka
Image
Some books seem like a key to unfamiliar rooms in one’s own castle.
Franz Kafka
Image
I want in fact more of you. In my mind I am dressing you with light I am wrapping you up in blankets of complete acceptance and then I give myself to you. I long for you I who usually long without longing, as though I am unconscious and absorbed in neutrality and apathy, really, utterly long for every bit of you.
Franz Kafka
Image
The observer of the soul cannot penetrate into the soul, but there doubtless is a margin where he comes into contact with it. Recognition of this contact is the fact that even the soul does not know of itself. Hence it must remain unknown. That would be sad only if there were anything apart from the soul, but there is nothing else.
Franz Kafka
Image
Even the merest gesture is holy if it is filled with faith.
Franz Kafka
Image
I never wish to be easily defined.
Franz Kafka
Image
It is strange how little sharpsightedness women possess they only notice whether they please, then whether they arouse pity, and finally, whether you look for compassion from them. That is all come to think of it, it may even be enough, generally speaking.
Franz Kafka
Image
Adam's first domestic pet after the expulsion from Paradise was the serpent.
Franz Kafka
Image
Many a book is like a key to unknown chambers within the castle of one’s own self.
Franz Kafka
Image
Celibacy and suicide are a similar levels of understanding, suicide and a martyr's death not so by any means, perhaps marriage and a martyr's death.
Franz Kafka
Image
I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us. If the book we are reading doesn't wake us up with a blow on the head, what are we reading it for?
Franz Kafka
Image
The relationship to one's fellow man is the relationship of prayer, the relationship to oneself is the relationship of striving it is from prayer that one draws the strength for one's striving.
Franz Kafka
Image
So long as you have food in your mouth, you have solved all questions for the time being.
Franz Kafka
Image
There's no quiet place here on earth for our love, not in the village and not anywhere else, so I picture a grave, deep and narrow, in which we embrace as if clamped together, I bury my face against you, you yours against me, and no one will ever see us.
Franz Kafka
Image
He is terribly afraid of dying because he hasn’t yet lived.
Franz Kafka
Image
We need the books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us.
Franz Kafka