101 Kafka Quotes From The Author Of 'The Metamorphosis'

Franz Kafka was a Bohemian writer.

Kafka is often considered as one of the best writers of the 20th century for his writings on realism. Some of his notable works include ''The Trial', 'The Metamorphosis', 'The Castle' and 'The Judgment'.

His work was been greatly appreciated by other writers and poets who have claimed that Kafka's writings were of a different genre. With his excellent writings on realism and modernism he is often cited as one of the literary greats of the 20th century.

The prolific writer passed away at a tender age of 40 in 1924, however he still continues to amaze readers and inspires young writers with his writings.

If you find our content interesting then do check out [Kerouac quotes] and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn quotes!

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Best Quotes Of Franz Kafka

Enlisted below are some of the best quotes of Franz Kafka.

1."A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us. That is my belief."

-Franz Kafka, 'Letter To Pollak'.

2. "Youth is happy because it has the capacity to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old."

-Franz Kafka.

3. "And 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, 'The Castle'.

4."If you find someone who makes you smile, who checks up on you often to see if you're okay. Who watches out or you and wants the best for you. Who loves and respects you. Don't let them go. People like that are hard to find."

- Franz Kafka.

5. "With my teeth clenched, however, and with your eyes before me I can endure anything: distance, anxiety, worry, letterlessness."

-Franz Kafka, 'Letter To Felice'.

6. "One idiot is one idiot. Two idiots are two idiots. Ten thousand idiots are a political party."

-Franz Kafka.

7. "I usually solve problems by letting them devour me."

-Franz Kafka.

8. "I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself."

-Franz Kafka, 'The Metamorphosis'.  

9. "By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired."

-Franz Kafka.

10. "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."

- Franz Kafka, 'Letter To Felice'.

11. "I am caught in a tide of sorrow and love which is carrying me away from writing."

- Franz Kafka, 'Letter To Felice'.

12. "He is terribly afraid of dying because he hasn’t yet lived."

- Franz Kafka, 'The Metamorphosis'.

13. "I do not know myself completely. Surprises and disappointments about myself follow each other in endless succession."

- Franz Kafka, 'Letter To Felice'.

14. "I no longer know If I wish to drown myself in love, vodka or the sea."

- Franz Kafka.

15. "Many a book is like a key to unknown chambers within the castle of one’s own self."

- Franz Kafka.

Franz Kafka Quotes About Life

Here are some of the best quotes about life by Kafka.

16. "Start with what is right rather than what is acceptable."

- Franz Kafka.

17. "From a certain point onward there is no longer any turning back. That is the point that must be reached."

- Franz Kafka, 'The Great Wall Of China'.

18. "The true word leads; the untrue misleads."

- Franz Kafka.

19. "You are at once both the quiet and the confusion of my heart."

- Franz Kafka, 'Letters To Felice'.

20. "I’m doing badly, I’m doing well; whichever you prefer."

- Franz Kafka, 'Letters To Milena'.

21. "I write differently from what I speak, I speak differently from what I think, I think differently from the way I ought to think, and so it all proceeds into deepest darkness."

- Franz Kafka, 'Letters To Ottla And The Family'.

22. "People label themselves with all sorts of adjectives. I can only pronounce myself as 'nauseatingly miserable beyond repair'."

- Franz Kafka.

23. "In argument similes are like songs in love; they describe much, but prove nothing."

- Franz Kafka.

24. "Only the moment counts. It determines life."

- Franz Kafka.

25. "Writing means revealing oneself to excess."

- Franz Kafka, 'Letters To Felice'.

26. "Anything that has real and lasting value is always a gift from within."

- Franz Kafka.

27. "Life is merely terrible; I feel it as few others do. Often — and in my inmost self perhaps all the time — I doubt whether I am a human being."

- Franz Kafka, 'Letters To Felice'.

28. "The day is so short. It goes by and ends with you and apart from you there are only trifles. There is just a short time left for me to write to the real Milena, because the more real Milena has been here all day, in the room, on the balcony, in the clouds."

- Franz Kafka, 'Letters To Milena'.

29. "I never imagined that so many days would ultimately make such a small life."

- Franz Kafka.

30. "You can choose to be free , but it's last decision you'll ever make"

- Franz Kafka.

Kafka Love Quotes

In this category we will find the best love quotes by Kafka.

31. "You are the knife I turn inside myself; that is love. That, my dear, is love."

- Franz Kafka, 'Letter To Felice'.

32. "I look a girl in the eye and it was a very long love story with thunder and kisses and lightning. I live fast."

-Franz Kafka.

33. "I’ve never seen anyone who was more of a girl than you, and girl that you are, I don’t dare offer you my hand, my dirty, twitching, clawlike, fidgety, unsteady, hot-cold hand."

- Franz Kafka, 'Letter To Felice'.

34. "Written kisses don't reach their destination, rather they are drunk on the way by the ghosts."

-Franz Kafka, 'Letters To Milena'.

35. "The exact information you want about me, dearest F., I cannot give you ; I can give it you, if at all, only when running along behind you in the Tiergarten, you always on the point of vanishing altogether, and I on the point of prostrating myself."

- Franz Kafka, 'Letter To Felice'.

36. "You see, the peaceful letters are the ones that make me happy (understand, Milena, my age, the fact that I am used up, and, above all, my fear, and understand your youth, your vivacity, your courage."

-Franz Kafka, 'Letters To Milena'.

Kafka Metamorphosis Quotes

Metamorphosis means changing oneself into something completely different. In the book 'The Metamorphosis' Kafka writes in the viewpoint of a bug. Here are some of the best quotes on metamorphosis.

37. "When one pursues material means, a savage awakens within us and forces us to oppose the laws of humanity."

-Franz Kafka, 'The Metamorphosis'.

38. "There are only two things. Truth and lies. Truth is indivisible, hence it cannot recognize itself; anyone who wants to recognize it has to be a lie."

- Franz Kafka, 'The Blue Octavo Notebooks'.

39. "Was he an animal, that music could move him so? He felt as if the way to the unknown nourishment he longed for were coming to light."

-Franz Kafka, 'The Metamorphosis'.

40. "It's only because of their stupidity that they're able to be so sure of themselves."

-Franz Kafka, 'The Metamorphosis'.

41. "Don't bend; don't water it down; don't try to make it logical; don't edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly."

-Franz Kafka, 'The Metamorphosis'.

42. "Writing, when it springs from within, is like giving birth, and the child is covered in mucus."

-Franz Kafka, 'The Metamorphosis'.

43. "Follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly."

-Franz Kafka, 'The Metamorphosis'.

44. "The sister played so beautifully. Her face was tilted to one side and she followed the notes with soulful and probing eyes. Gregor advanced a little, keeping his eyes low so that they might possibly meet hers. Was he a beast if music could move him so?"

-Franz Kafka, 'The Metamorphosis'.

45. "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."

-Franz Kafka, 'The Metamorphosis'.

The Letters Of Kafka

Enlisted below are some beautiful quotes from the letters written by Kafka to his friends and family.

46. "I long for you; I who usually longs without longing, as though I am unconscious and absorbed in neutrality and apathy, really, utterly long for every bit of you."

-Franz Kafka, 'Letters To Milena'.

47. "Do you know, darling? When you became involved with others you quite possibly stepped down a level or two, but If you become involved with me, you will be throwing yourself into the abyss."

-Franz Kafka, 'Letters To Milena'.

48. "The exquisite instinct you and I both have! A vulture, seeking quiet, I fly upward and swoop, straight as a die, into this room, opposite which a piano, wildly thumping its pedals, is playing, surely the only piano in this whole region."

-Franz Kafka, 'Letter To Max Brod'.

49. "I am constantly trying to communicate something incommunicable, to explain something inexplicable, to tell about something I only feel in my bones and which can only be experienced in those bones."

-Franz Kafka, 'Letters To Milena'.

50. "Sleep is the most innocent creature there is and a sleepless man the most guilty."

-Franz Kafka, 'Letters To Milena'.

51. "Knowledge must seep into your blood, into your self, not just into your head, you must live it."

-Franz Kafka, 'Letters To Ottla And TheFamily'.

52. "I’m tired, can’t think of anything and want only to lay my face in your lap, feel your hand on my head and remain like that through all eternity."

-Franz Kafka, 'Letters To Milena'.

53. "I am always trying to convey something that can’t be conveyed, to explain something which is inexplicable, to tell about something I have in my bones, something which can be expressed only in the bones."

-Franz Kafka, 'Letters To Milena'.

54. "I have spent all my life resisting the desire to end it."

-Franz Kafka, 'Letters To Milena'.

55. "In a way, you are poetry material; you are full of cloudy subtleties I am willing to spend a lifetime figuring out. Words burst in your essence and you carry their dust in the pores of your ethereal individuality."

-Franz Kafka, 'Letters To Milena'.

56. "If I did, how could I, fool that I am, go on sitting in my office, or here at home, instead of leaping onto a train with my eyes shut and opening them only when I am with you?"

-Franz Kafka, 'Letters To Felice'.

57. "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, 'Letters To Milena'.

58. "I can love only what I can place so high above me that I cannot reach it."

- Franz Kafka, 'Letters To Friends, Family, and Editors'.

Modernist Quotes Of Kafka

Kafka was considered as a writer who specialized in modernisation and thus here are the best modernist quotes of Kafka.

59. "We live in an age which is so possessed by demons, that soon we shall only be able to do goodness and justice in the deepest secrecy, as if it were a crime."

- Franz Kafka.

60. "In the struggle between yourself and the world, second the world."

-Franz Kafka, 'The Zürau Aphorisms'.

61. "Self-control is something for which I do not strive. Self-control means wanting to be effective at some random point in the infinite radiations of my spiritual existence."

-Franz Kafka.

62. "There are some things one can only achieve by a deliberate leap in the opposite direction."

- Franz Kafka.

63. "He who seeks does not find, but he who does not seek will be found."

- Franz Kafka.

64. "You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet, still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet."

- Franz Kafka, 'The Zürau Aphorisms'.

65. "I have no literary interests; I am made of literature. I am nothing else and cannot be anything else."

-Franz Kafka.

66. "Even if no salvation should come, I want to be worthy of it at every moment."

-Franz Kafka.

Existentialism In Kafka Quotes

One of the major themes in the writings of Kafka was the very existence of everything. Here are some of the finest quotes on existentialism.

67. "There is a destination but no way there; what we refer to as way is hesitation."

- Franz Kafka, 'Aphorisms'.

68. "My guiding principle is this: Guilt is never to be doubted."

-Franz Kafka.

69. "Yet even if I manage that, one single slip, and a slip cannot be avoided, will stop the whole process, easy and painful alike, and I will have to shrink back into my own circle again."

-Franz Kafka.

70. "The meaning of life is that it stops."

-Franz Kafka.

71. "When one has once accepted and absorbed Evil, it no longer demands to be believed."

- Franz Kafka, 'The Blue Octavo Notebooks'.

72. "The man in ecstasy and the man drowning: both raise their arms."

- Franz Kafka.

73. "In the fight between you and the world, back the world."

- Franz Kafka.

74. "Start with what is right rather than what is acceptable."

- Franz Kafka.

75. "Association with human beings lures one into self-observation."

- Franz Kafka.

76. "I have hardly anything in common with myself and should stand very quietly in a corner, content that I can breathe."

-Franz Kafka, 'The Trial'.

77. "I am a cage, in search of a bird"

- Franz Kafka.

78. "You can hold yourself back from the sufferings of the world, that is something you are free to do and it accords with your nature, but perhaps this very holding back is the one suffering you could avoid."

-Franz Kafka.

79. "There is an infinite amount of hope in the universe ... but not for us."

-Franz Kafka.

80. "What if I slept a little more and forgot about all this nonsense."

-Franz Kafka.

81. "Do not waste your time looking for an obstacle - maybe there is none."

-Franz Kafka.

82. "Priest : No. You don't need to accept everything as true, you only have to accept it as necessary.

K : Depressing view, The lie made into the rule of the world."

- Franz Kafka, 'The Trial'.

83. "One of the first signs of the beginning of understanding is the wish to die. This life appears unbearable, another unattainable. One is no longer ashamed of wanting to die; one asks to be moved from the old cell, which one hates, to a new one, which one willl only in time come to hate."

-Franz Kafka, 'Blue Octavo Notebooks'.

84. "I am free and that is why I am lost."

-Franz Kafka.

85. "I never wish to be easily defined. I’d rather float over other people’s minds as something strictly fluid and non-perceivable; more like a transparent, paradoxically iridescent creature rather than an actual person."

- Franz Kafka.

Other Famous Kafka Quotes

Here you will find famous quotes of Kafka along with Kafka 'The Trial' quotes and Kafka 'Castle' quotes.

86. It seems to be a fact that man, tortured by his demons, avenges himself blindly on his fellow-man.

- Franz Kafka, 'Letters To Milena'.

87. Calm —indeed the calmest— reflection might be better than the most confused decisions

-Franz Kafka, 'The Metamorphosis'.

88. "Not everyone can see the truth, but he can be it."

- Franz Kafka, 'The Blue Octavo Notebooks".

89. "All human errors are impatience, a premature breaking off of methodical procedure, an apparent fencing-in of what is apparently at issue."

- Franz Kafka.

90. "The cruelty of death lies in the fact that it brings the real sorrow of the end, but not the end. The greatest cruelty of death: an apparent end causes a real sorrow. Our salvation is death, but not this one."

- Franz Kafka, 'The Blue Octavo Notebooks'.

91. "Love has as few problems as a motor car. The only problems are the driver, the passengers, and the road."

- Franz Kafka.

92. Then his head sank to the floor of its own accord and from his nostrils came the last faint flicker of his breath.

Franz Kafka, 'The Metamorphosis'.

93. "Torment yourself as little as possible, then you'll torment me less."

- Franz Kafka.

94. "I need solitude for my writing; not 'like a hermit' - that wouldn't be enough - but like a dead man."

- Franz Kafka.

95. "As far as I have seen, at school...they aimed at blotting out one's individuality."

- Franz Kafka.

96. "I can't feel a thing; All mournful petal storms are dancing inside the very private spring of my head."

- Franz Kafka.

97. "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.

98. "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."

- Franz Kafka.

99. Either the world is so tiny or we are so enormous, in any case we fill it completely.

- Franz Kafka, 'Letters To Milena .

100. "I'm thinking only of my illness and my health, though both, the first as well as the second, are you."

- Franz Kafka.

101. The door could not be heard slamming; they had probably left it open, as is the custom in homes where a great misfortune has occurred.

-Franz Kafka, 'The Metamorphosis'.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for Kafka quotes then why not take a look at Aesop quotes, or Zadie Smith quotes?

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