Anyone who cannot come to terms with his life while he is alive needs one hand to ward off a little his despair over his fate — he has little success… - Franz Kafka
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Anyone who cannot come to terms with his life while he is alive needs one hand to ward off a little his despair over his fate — he has little success in this — but with his other hand he can note down what he sees among the ruins, for he sees different (and more) things than do the others; after all, dead as he is in his own lifetime, he is the real survivor. This assumes that he does not need both hands, or more hands than he has, in his struggle against despair.
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About
Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a Bohemian-Jewish novelist, and one of the major German-language fiction writers of the 20th century.
Biography information from
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Portrait adapted from
Wikimedia Commons, Unknown photographer (Public domain / CC0)
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Shorter versions of this quote
Anyone who cannot cope with life while he is alive needs one hand to ward off a little his despair over his fate...but with his other hand he can jot down what he sees among the ruins, for he sees different and more things than the others; after all, he is dead in his own lifetime and the real survivor.
I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself.
The books we need are of the kind that act upon us like a misfortune, that makes 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, lost in a forest remote from all human habitation.
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