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Franz Kafka Quotes

Franz Kafka quotes about thinking

Austrian Novelist, Writer July 3, 1883 – June 3, 1924

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Quotes

I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound or stab us. If the book we're reading doesn't wake us up with a blow to the head, what are we reading for? So that it will make us happy, as you write? Good Lord, we would be happy precisely if we had no books, and the kind of books that make us happy are the kind we could write ourselves if we had to. But we need books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like... Franz Kafka
I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound or stab us. If the book we’re reading doesn’t wake us up with a blow to the head, what are we reading for? So that it will make us happy, as you write? Good Lord, we would be happy precisely if we had no books, and the kind of books that make us happy are the kind we could write ourselves if we had to. But we need books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like... Franz Kafka
…I can’t think of any greater happiness than to be with you all the time, without interruption, endlessly, even though I feel that here in this world there’s no undisturbed place for our love, neither in the village nor anywhere else; 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
I think we ought to read only books that bite and sting us. If the book we are reading doesn’t shake us awake like a blow to the skull, why bother reading it in the first place? So it can make us happy? Good God, we’d be just as happy if we had no books at all… A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us. Franz Kafka
If I didn't have my parents to think about I'd have given in my notice a long time ago, I'd have gone up to the boss and told him just what I think, tell him everything I would, let him know just what I feel. He'd fall right off his desk! And it's a funny sort of business to be sitting up there at your desk, talking down at your subordinates from up there, especially when you have to go right up close because the boss is hard of hearing. Franz Kafka
These are the seductive voices of the night; the Sirens, too, sang that way. It would be doing them an injustice to think that they wanted to seduce; they knew they had claws and sterile wombs, and they lamented this aloud. They could not help it if their laments sounded so beautiful. Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka quote: "Just think how many thoughts a blanket smothers while one lies..."
Just think how many thoughts a blanket smothers while one lies alone in bed, and how many unhappy dreams it keeps warm. Franz Kafka
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
Franz Kafka quote: "I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and..."
I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us. Franz Kafka
I was making for that city in the south of which it was said in our village:"There you'll find queer folk! Just think, they never sleep!"And why not?"Because they never get tired."And why not?"Because they're fools."Don't fools get tired?"How could fools get tired!"---Children on a Country Road, Contemplation. Franz Kafka
I hate everything that does not relate to literature, conversations bore me (even when they relate to literature), to visit people bores me, the joys and sorrows of my relatives bore me to my soul. Conversation takes the importance, the seriousness, the truth, out of everything I think. Franz Kafka
What I write is different from what I say, what I say is different from what I think, what I think is different from what I ought to think and so it goes further into the deepest darkness. Franz Kafka
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
April 27. Incapable of living with people, of speaking. Complete immersion in myself, thinking of myself. Apathetic, witless, fearful. I have nothing to say to anyone - never. Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka quote: "I do not speak as I think, I do not think as I should, and so..."
I do not speak as I think, I do not think as I should, and so it all goes on in helpless darkness. Franz Kafka

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