Franz Kafka

Evil is whatever distracts.

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

Heaven is dumb, echoing only the dumb.

It is only our conception of time that makes us call the Last Judgement by this name. It is, in fact, a kind of martial law.

Atlas was permitted the opinion that he was at liberty if he wished to drop the Earth and creep away, but this opinion was all that he was permitted.

Don't despair, not even over the fact that you don't despair.

May I kiss you then? On this miserable paper? I might as well open the window and kiss the night air.

The history of mankind is the instant between two strides taken by a traveler.

Tyranny or slavery born of selfishness are the two educational methods of parents, all gradations of tyranny or slavery.

Don Quixote's misfortune is not his imagination, but Sancho Panza.

A man of action forced into a state of thought is unhappy until he can get out of it.

It is often safer to be in chains than to be free.

My peers lately have found companionship through means of intoxication - it makes them sociable. I however cannot force myself to use drugs to cheat on my loneliness - it is all that I have - and when the drugs and alcohol dissipate will be all that my peers have as well.

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

If it had been possible to build the Tower of Babel without climbing it it would have been permitted.

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

The fact that our task is exactly commensurate with our life gives it the appearance of being infinite.

Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.

My "fear" is my substance and probably the best part of me.

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.