Franz Kafka Quotes

Love is a drama of contradictions.

The truth is always an abyss. One must — as in a swimming pool — dare to dive from the quivering springboard of trivial everyday experience and sink into the depths, in order to later rise again — laughing and fighting for breath — to the now doubly illuminated surface of things.

First impressions are always unreliable.

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

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.

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.

We are as forlorn as children lost in the wood. When you stand in front of me and look at me, what do you know of the griefs that are in me and what do I know of yours? And if I were to cast myself down before you and tell you, what more would you know about me that you know about Hell when someone tells you it is hot and dreadful?

I am dirty, Milena, endlessly dirty, that is why I make such a fuss about cleanliness. None sing as purely as those in deepest hell; it is their singing we take for the singing of angels.

I was ashamed of myself when I realised life was a costume party and I attended with my real face

You are free and that is why you are lost.

sleep is the most innocent creature there is and a sleepless man
the most guilty.

What am I doing here in this endless winter?

I am not well; I could have built the Pyramids with the effort it takes me to cling on to life and reason.

I’m doing badly, I’m doing well, whichever you prefer.

Kill me, or you are a murderer.