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There Is A Goal But No Way; What We Call The Way Is Mere Wavering.
-Franz Kafka
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There Is A Goal

Franz Kafka
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There Is A Goal But No Way; What We Call The Way Is Mere Wavering.

Understanding the Quote: "there is a goal but no way; what we call the way..."

This quote by Franz Kafka reflects deeply on the theme of goal. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Goal, Wavering, Way, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Franz Kafka interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka is celebrated for insightful thoughts on goal and wavering. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Goal
Wavering
Way
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For Everything Outside The Phenomenal World, Language Can Only Be Used Allusively, But Never Even Approximately In A Comparative Way, Since, Corresponding As It Does To The Phenomenal World, It Is Concerned Only With Property And Its Relations.
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There's No Quiet Place Here On Earth For Our Love, Not In The Village And Not Anywhere Else, So I Picture A Grave, Deep And Narrow, In Which We Embrace As If Clamped Together, I Bury My Face Against You, You Yours Against Me, And No One Will Ever See Us.
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Everything Is Deception: Seeking The Minimum Of Illusion, Keeping Within The Ordinary Limitations, Seeking The Maximum. In The First Case One Cheats The Good, By Trying To Make It Too Easy For Oneself To Get It, And The Evil By Imposing All Too Unfavorable Conditions Of Warfare On It. In The Second Case One Cheats The Good By Keeping As Aloof From It As Possible, And The Evil By Hoping To Make It Powerless Through Intensifying It To The Utmost.
Evil
Deception
Trying
Expulsion From Paradise Is In Its Main Aspect Eternal: That Is To Say, Although Expulsion From Paradise Is Final, And Life In Theworld Unavoidable, The Eternity Of The Process (or, Expressed In Temporal Terms, The Eternal Repetition Of The Process) Nevertheless Makes It Possible Not Only That We Might Remain In Paradise Permanently, But That We May In Fact Be There Permanently, No Matter Whether We Know It Here Or Not.
Time
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Might
Humility Provides Everyone, Even Him Who Despairs In Solitude, With The Strongest Relationship To His Fellow Man.
Humility
Men
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First Impressions Are Always Unreliable.
First Impression
Firsts
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Going To Pieces. To Go To Pieces So Pointlessly And Unnecessarily.
Pieces
Sensual Love Deceives One As To The Nature Of Heavenly Love; It Could Not Do So Alone, But Since It Unconsciously Has The Element Of Heavenly Love Within It, It Can Do So.
Hype
Sensual
Elements
Time Is Short, My Strength Is Limited, The Office Is A Horror, The Apartment Is Noisy, And If A Pleasant, Straightforward Life Is Not Possible, Then One Must Try To Wriggle Through By Subtle Manoeuvres.
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My Guiding Principle Is This: Guilt Is Never To Be Doubted.
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That's How It Will Be, Except That In Reality, Both Today And Later, One Will Stand There With A Palpable Body And A Real Head, A Real Forehead, That Is, For Smiting On With One's Hand.
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From A Real Antagonist One Gains Boundless Courage.
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Real
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They Were Offered The Choice Between Becoming Kings Or The Couriers Of Kings. The Way Children Would, They All Wanted To Be Couriers. Therefore There Are Only Couriers Who Hurry About The World, Shouting To Each Other - Since There Are No Kings - Messages That Have Become Meaningless. They Would Like To Put An End To This Miserable Life Of Theirs But They Dare Not Because Of Their Oaths Of Service.
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Suffering Is The Positive Element In This World, Indeed It Is The Only Link Between This World And The Positive.
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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.
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There Is Nothing Bad To Fear; Once You Have Crossed That Threshold, All Is Well. Another World, And You Do Not Have To Speak
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I Am A Retiring, Silent, Unsociable, And Discontent Person.
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There's An Infinite Amount Of Hope But Not For Us.
Infinite
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One Must Fight To Get To The Top, Especially If One Starts At The Bottom.
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I Have Hardly Anything In Common With Myself And Should Stand Very Quietly In A Corner, Content That I Can Breathe.
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If They Were Shocked, Then Gregor Had No Further Responsibility And Could Be Calm. But If They Took Everything Calmly, He He, Too, Had No Reason To Get Excited And Could, If He Hurried, Actually Be At The Station By Eight O'clock.
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Eight
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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.
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But Questions That Don’t Answer Themselves At The Very Moment Of Their Asking Are Never Answered.
Asking
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Self-control Means Wanting To Be Effective At Some Random Point In The Infinite Radiations Of My Spiritual Existence.
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Evil Is Whatever Distracts.
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At That Point I Asked Myself: How Is It That She Is Not Amazed At Herself, That She Keeps Her Lips Closed And Makes No Such Remark?
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He Was A Tool Of The Boss, Without Brains Or Backbone.
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The Person I Am In The Company Of My Sisters Has Been Entirely Different From The Person I Am In The Company Of Other People. Fearless, Powerful, Surprising, Moved As I Otherwise Am Only When I Write.
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To Animalise Is Humane, To Humanise Is Animal.
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The Notion Of The Infinite Expanse And Copiousness Of The Cosmos Is The Result Of The Mixture, Carried To The Extreme Limit, Of Laborious Creation And Free Self-determination.
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The Whole Visible World Is Perhaps Nothing Other Than A Motivation Of Man's Wish To Rest For A Moment An Attempt To Falsify The Fact Of Knowledge, To Try To Turn The Knowledge Into The Goal.
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When One Has Once Accepted And Absorbed Evil, It No Longer Demands To Be Believed.
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The Right Understanding Of Any Matter And A Misunderstanding Of The Same Matter Do Not Wholly Exclude Each Other.
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The Dream Reveals The Reality Which Conception Lags Behind. That Is The Horror Of Life-the Terror Of Art.
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And I Leave My Post Of Observation And Find I Have Had Enough Of This Outside Life; I Feel That There Is Nothing More That I Can Learn Here, Either Now Or At Any Time. And I Long To Say A Last Goodbye To Everything Up Here, To Go Down Into My Burrow Never To Return Again, Let Things Take Their Course, And Not Try To Retard Them With My Profitless Vigils.
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In The Struggle Between Yourself And The World Second The World.
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You Are So Vulnerably Haunting. Your Eeriness Is Terrifyingly Irresistible.
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In Me, By Myself, Without Human Relationship, There Are No Visible Lies. The Limited Circle Is Pure.
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Written Kisses Don't Reach Their Destination, Rather They Are Drunk On The Way By The Ghosts.
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There Is A Down-and-outness Under True Knowledge And A Childlike Happy Arising From It.
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A First Sign Of The Beginning Of Understanding Is The Wish To Die.
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Simply Wait, Be Quiet, Still The World Will Freely Offer Itself To You.
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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.
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The Experience Of Life Consists Of The Experience Which The Spirit Has Of Itself In Matter And As Matter, In Mind And As Mind, In Emotion, As Emotion, Etc.
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The True Word Leads; The Untrue Misleads.
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We Photograph Things In Order To Drive Them Out Of Our Minds. My Stories Are A Way Of Shutting My Eyes.
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I Have No Memory For Things I Have Learned, Nor Things I Have Read, Nor Things Experienced Or Heard, Neither For People Nor Events; I Feel That I Have Experienced Nothing, Learned Nothing, That I Actually Know Less Than The Average Schoolboy, And That What I Do Know Is Superficial, And That Every Second Question Is Beyond Me. I Am Incapable Of Thinking Deliberately; My Thoughts Run Into A Wall. I Can Grasp The Essence Of Things In Isolation, But I Am Quite Incapable Of Coherent, Unbroken Thinking. I Can't Even Tell A Story Properly; In Fact, I Can Scarcely Talk.
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There Are Times When I Am Convinced I Am Unfit For Any Human Relationship.
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Isolation Is A Way To Know Ourselves.
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It Receives You When You Come And Dismisses You When You Go.
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To Every Instant There Is A Correspondence In Something Outside Time. This World Here And Now Cannot Be Followed By A Beyond, For The Beyond Is Eternal, Hence It Cannot Be In Temporal Contact With This World Here And Now.
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When K. Looked At The Castle, Often It Seemed To Him As If He Were Observing Someone Who Sat Quietly There In Front Of Him Gazing, Not Lost In Thought And So Oblivious Of Everything, But Free And Untroubled, As If He Were Alone With Nobody To Observe Him, And Yet Must Notice That He Was Observed, And All The Same Remained With His Calm Not Even Slightly Disturbed; And Really - One Did Not Know Whether It Was Cause Or Effect - The Gaze Of The Observer Could Not Remain Concentrated There, But Slid Away.
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And In That Recurring Dream, I Found Myself Trapped In Some Sort Of Gigantic Game Of Which I Was Unfamiliar With The Rules; Lost In A Labyrinthine Town Of Dark And Damp, Criss-crossing Streets, Ambiguous Characters Of Uncertain Authority Having No Idea Of Why I Was There Nor What I Had To Do, And Where The First Sign Of The Beginning Of Understanding Was The Wish To Die.
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Love Is, That You Are The Knife Which I Plunge Into Myself.
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A Book Should Serve As An Axe To The Ice Inside Us.
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Sometimes I Think I Can Expiate All My Past And Future Sins Through The Aching Of My Bones.
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A Man Of Action Forced Into A State Of Thought Is Unhappy Until He Can Get Out Of It.
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The Fathers Of The Church Were Not Afraid To Go Out Into The Desert Because They Had A Richness In Their Hearts. But We, With Richness All Around Us, Are Afraid, Because The Desert Is In Our Hearts.
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No," Said The Priest, "you Don't Need To Accept Everything As True, You Only Have To Accept It As Necessary." "depressing View," Said K. "the Lie Made Into The Rule Of The World.
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If The Book We Are Reading Does Not Wake Us, As With A Fist Hammering On Our Skull, Why Then Do We Read? So That It Shall Make Us Happy? Good God, We Should Also Be Happy If We Had No Books, And Such Books As Make Us Happy We Could, If Need Be, Write Ourselves. But What We Must Have Are Those Books Which Come Upon Us Like Ill Fortune, And Distress Us Deeply, Like The Death Of One We Love Better Than Ourselves; Like Suicide. A Book Must Be An Ice-axe To Break The Sea Frozen Inside Us.
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There Are Questions We Could Not Get Past If We Were Not Set Free From Them By Our Very Nature.
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Being Alone Has A Power Over Me That Never Fails. My Interior Dissolves (for The Time Being Only Superficially) And Is Ready To Release What Lies Deeper. When I Am Willfully Alone, A Slight Ordering Of My Interior Begins To Take Place And I Need Nothing More.
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You Are At Once Both The Quiet And The Confusion Of My Heart.
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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.
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Human Nature, Essentially Changeable, As Unstable As The Dust, Can Endure No Restraint; If It Binds Itself It Soon Begins To Tear Madly At Its Bonds, Until It Rends Everything Asunder, The Wall, The Bonds, And Its Very Self.
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Believing Means Liberating The Indestructible Element In Oneself, Or, More Accurately, Liberating Oneself, Or, More Accurately, Being Indestructible, Or, More Accurately, Being.
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It Would Have Been So Pointless To Kill Himself That, Even If He Had Wanted To, The Pointlessness Would Have Made Him Unable.
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Wanted
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Hold Fast To The Diary From Today On! Write Regularly! Don't Surrender! Even If No Salvation Should Come, I Want To Be Worthy Of It Every Moment.
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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... But With His Other Hand He Can Note Down What He Sees Among The Ruins.
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Just Because Your Doctor Has A Name For Your Condition, Doesn't Mean He Knows What It Is.
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Some Books Seem Like A Key To Unfamiliar Rooms In One’s Own Castle.
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Human Judgment Of Human Actions Is True And Void , That Is To Say, First True And Then Void.... The Judgment Of The Word Is True, The Judgment In Itself Is Void.... Only He Who Is A Party Can Really Judge, But As A Party He Cannot Judge. Hence It Follows That There Is No Possibility Of Judgment In The World, Only A Glimmer Of It.
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World
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.
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Thinking
Talking
The Meaning Of Life Is That It Stops.
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I See, These Books Are Probably Law Books, And It Is An Essential Part Of The Justice Dispensed Here That You Should Be Condemned Not Only In Innocence But Also In Ignorance.
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Ignorance
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So Long As You Have Food In Your Mouth, You Have Solved All Questions For The Time Being.
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Long
Cooking
The Purpose Of A Story Is To Be An Axe That Breaks Up The Ice Within Us.
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Just Think How Many Thoughts A Blanket Smothers While One Lies Alone In Bed, And How Many Unhappy Dreams It Keeps Warm.
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People Keep Themselves At A Tolerable Height Above An Infernal Abyss Toward Which They Gravitate Only By Putting Out All Their Strength And Lovingly Helping One Another. They Are Tied Together By Ropes, And It's Bad Enough When The Ropes Around An Individual Loosen And He Drops Somewhat Lower Than The Others Into Empty Space; Ghastly When The Ropes Break And He Falls. That's Why We Should Cling To The Others.
Fall
Space
People
Do Not Waste Your Time Looking For An Obstacle - Maybe There Is None.
Waste
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Because Of Impatience We Were Driven Out [of Paradise]; Because Of Impatience We Cannot Return.
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Return
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Celibacy And Suicide Are A Similar Levels Of Understanding, Suicide And A Martyr's Death Not So By Any Means, Perhaps Marriage And A Martyr's Death.
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Mean
Understanding
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.
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Now I Can Look At You In Peace; I Don't Eat You Any More.
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A Lawyer Is A Person Who Writes A 10,000-word Document And Calls It A "brief."
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Lawyer
Persons
Anyone Who Believes Cannot Experience Miracles. By Day One Does Not See Any Stars. Anyone Who Does Miracles Says: I Cannot Let Goof The Earth.
Letting Go
Stars
Believe
Please — Consider Me A Dream.
Dream
Please
I Like To Make Use Of What I Know
Use
Knows
There Are Some Things One Can Only Achieve By A Deliberate Leap In The Opposite Direction.
Inspiring
Spring
New Beginnings
In Man's Struggle Against The World, Bet On The World.
Struggle
Men
World
Association With Human Beings Lures One Into Self-observation.
Self
Literature
Association
True Undoubting Is The Teacher's Part, Continual Undoubting The Part Of The Pupil.
Teacher
Students
Pupils
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.
Depression
Health
World Suffering
What Am I Doing Here In This Endless Winter?
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Endless
Art Is For The Artist Is Only Suffering Through Which He Releases Himself For Further Suffering.
Art
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Release
He Is Terribly Afraid Of Dying Because He Hasn’t Yet Lived.
Fear
Dying
In The Fight Between You And The World, Back The World.
Funny
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Literature
Evil Is The Radiation Of The Human Consciousness In Certain Transitional Positions. It Is Not Actually The Sensual World That Is Amere Appearance; What Is So Is The Evil Of It, Which, Admittedly, Is What Constitutes The Sensual World In Our Eyes.
Eye
Evil
Sensual
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Infinite
Amount
Universe
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Photography
Eye
Light
All Human Errors Are Impatience, A Premature Breaking Off Of Methodical Procedure, An Apparent Fencing-in Of What Is Apparently At Issue.
Patience
Errors
Issues
Anything That Has Real And Lasting Value Is Always A Gift From Within.
Inspirational
Real
Lasting
One Of The Most Effective Means Of Seduction That Evil Has Is The Challenge To Struggle. It Is Like The Struggle With Women, Whichends In Bed. A Married Man's True Deviations From The Path Of Virtue Are, Rightly Understood, Never Gay.
Women
Struggle
Mean
Anyone Who Loves His Neighbor Within The Limits Of The World Is Doing No More And No Less Injustice Than Someone Who Loves Himself Within The Limits Of The World.
Love
World
Limits
All Knowledge, The Totality Of All Questions And All Answers, Is Contained In The Dog. If One Could But Realize This Knowledge, If One Could But Bring It Into The Light Of Day, If We Dogs Would But Own That We Know Infinitely More Than We Admit To Ourselves!
Dog
Light
Answers
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?
Book
Reading
Blow
I No Longer Know If I Wish To Drown Myself In Love, Vodka Or The Sea.
Sea
Wish
Vodka
There They Lay, But Not In The Forgetfulness Of The Previous Night. She Was Seeking And He Was Seeking, They Raged And Contorted Their Faces And Bored Their Heads Into Each Others Bosom In The Urgency Of Seeking Something, And Their Embraces And Their Tossing Limbs Did Not Avail To Make Them Forget, But Only Reminded Them Of What They Sought
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Ignorance
Bliss
Ignorance Is Bliss
There Art Two Cardinal Sins From Which All Others Spring: Impatience And Laziness.
Patience
Art
Spring
The Diabolical Sometimes Assumes The Aspect Of The Good, Or Even Embodies Itself Completely In Its Form. If This Remains Concealedfrom Me, I Am Of Course Defeated, For This Good Is More Tempting Than The Genuine Good.
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Assuming
Sometimes
Even The Merest Gesture Is Holy If It Is Filled With Faith.
Holiness
Gestures
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Writing Is A Sweet, Wonderful Reward.
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Writing
Rewards
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.
Dust
Essence
Individuality
If The Book We Are Reading Does Not Wake Us, As With A Fist Hammering On Our Skull, Why Then Do We Read It?
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Reading
Skulls
Every Thing That You Love, You Will Eventually Lose, But In The End, Love Will Return In A Different Form.
Love You
Different
Return
May I Kiss You Then? On This Miserable Paper? I Might As Well Open The Window And Kiss The Night Air.
Kissing
Night
Air
I Answer One Of Your Letters, Then Lie In Bed In Apparent Calm, But My Heart Beats Through My Entire Body And Is Conscious Only Of You. I Belong To You; There Is Really No Other Way Of Expressing It, And That Is Not Strong Enough.
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Lying
Heart
Writer Speaks A Stench.
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I’m Doing Badly, I’m Doing Well; Whichever You Prefer.
Wells
I'm Thinking Only Of My Illness And My Health, Though Both, The First As Well As The Second, Are You.
Thinking
Firsts
Illness
Psychology Is The Description Of The Reflection Of The Terrestial World In The Heavenly Plane, Or, More Correctly, The Description Of A Reflection Such As We, Soaked As We Are In Our Terrestial Nature, Imagine It, For No Reflection Actually Occurs, Only We See Earth Wherever We Turn.
Reflection
Psychology
World
I Can't Feel A Thing; All Mournful Petal Storms Are Dancing Inside The Very Private Spring Of My Head.
Spring
Dancing
Storm
He Thought Back On His Family With Deep Emotion And Love. His Conviction That He Would Have To Disappear Was, If Possible, Even Firmer Than His Sister's. He Remained In This State Of Empty And Peaceful Reflection Until The Tower Clock Struck Three In The Morning. He Still Saw That Outside The Window Everything Was Beginning To Grow Light. Then, Without His Consent, His Head Sank Down To The Floor, And From His Nostrils Streamed His Last Weak Breath.
Morning
Reflection
Light
One Tells As Few Lies As Possible Only By Telling As Few Lies As Possible, And Not By Having The Least Possible Opportunity To Do So.
Lying
Opportunity
The Limited Circle Is Pure.
Hilarious
Circles
Pure
It Isn't Necessary That You Leave Home. Sit At Your Desk And Listen. Don't Even Listen, Just Wait. Don't Wait, Be Still And Alone. The Whole World Will Offer Itself To You.
Home
Waiting
World
German Is My Mother Tongue And As Such More Natural To Me, But I Consider Czech Much More Affectionate, Which Is Why Your Letter Removes Several Uncertainties; I See You More Clearly, The Movements Of Your Body, Your Hands, So Quick, So Resolute, It’s Almost Like A Meeting.
Mother
Hands
Movement
I Hate Everything That Does Not Relate To Literature, Conversations Bore Me (even If They Relate To Literature), To Visit People Bores Me, The Sorrows And Joys Of My Relatives Bore Me To The Very Soul. Conversation Takes The Importance, The Seriousness, The Truth, Out Of Everything I Think.
Hate
Thinking
People
Leop­ards Break In­to The Tem­ple And Drink All The Sac­ri­fi­cial Ves­sels Dry; It Keeps Hap­pen­ing; In The End, It Can Be Cal­cu­lat­ed In Ad­vance And Is In­cor­po­rat­ed In­to The Rit­ual.
Dry
Rats
Drink
A Book Must Be An Ice-axe To Break The Seas Frozen Inside Our Soul.
Book
Reading
Ice
I Have The True Feeling Of Myself Only When I Am Unbearably Unhappy.
Depression
Feelings
Feeling Lost
There Will Be No Proof That I Ever Was A Writer.
Proof
One Must Not Cheat Anyone, Not Even The World Of Its Victory.
Cheating
Victory
World
Let Me Remind You Of The Old Maxim: People Under Suspicion Are Better Moving Than At Rest, Since At Rest They May Be Sitting In The Balance Without Knowing It, Being Weighed Together With Their Sins.
Moving
Knowing
People
Idleness Is The Beginning Of All Vice, The Crown Of All Virtues.
Vices
Crowns
Literature
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.
Life
Death
Real
Palestine Needs Earth, But It Does Not Need Lawyers.
Doe
Needs
Earth
But Gregor Understood Easily That It Was Not Only Consideration For Him Which Prevented Their Moving, For He Could Easily Have Been Transported In A Suitable Crate With A Few Air Holes; What Mainly Prevented The Family From Moving Was Their Complete Hopelessness And The Thought That They Had Been Struck By A Misfortune As None Of Their Relatives And Acquaintances Had Ever Been Hit.
Moving
Air
Hopelessness
I Do Not Read Advertisements. I Would Spend All Of My Time Wanting Things.
Want
Advertising
Advertisements
The Thornbush Is The Old Obstacle In The Road. It Must Catch Fire If You Want To Go Further.
Fire
Literature
Want
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.
Eye
Brain
Watches
A Picture Of My Existence... Would Show A Useless Wooden Stake Covered In Snow... Stuck Loosely At A Slant In The Ground In A Ploughed Field On The Edge Of A Vast Open Plain On A Dark Winter Night.
Winter
Dark
Night
A Non-writing Writer Is A Monster Courting Insanity.
Writing
Insanity
Monsters
There Is A Destination But No Way There; What We Refer To As Way Is Hesitation.
Way
Destination
Hesitation
Towards The Avoidance Of A Piece Of Verbal Confusion: What Is Intended To Be Actively Destroyed Must First Of All Have Been Firmly Grasped; What Crumbles Away Crumbles Away, But Cannot Be Destroyed.
Confusion
Pieces
Firsts
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. In This There Is Also A Residue Of Belief That During The Move The Master Will Chance To Come Along The Corridor, Look At The Prisoner And Say: "this Man Is Not To Be Locked Up Again, He Is To Come With Me.
Hate
Moving
Men
We Need The Books That Affect Us Like A Disaster
Book
Needs
Disaster
I Wanted To Escape The Unrest, To Shut Out The Voices Around Me And Within Me, So I Write.
Writing
Voice
Unrest
But Eternity Is Not Temporality At A Standstill. What Is Oppressive About The Concept Of The Eternal Is The Justification, Incomprehensible To Us, That Time Must Undergo In Eternity And The Logical Conclusion Of That, The Justification Of Ourselves As We Are.
Time
Eternity
Logical
Nothing Is As Deceptive As A Photograph.
Photograph
Deceptive
The Worries That Are The Burden Of Which The Privileged Person Makes An Excuse In Dealing With The Oppressed Person Are In Fact The Worries About Preserving His Privileged Condition.
Worry
Facts
Privilege
Some Deny The Existence Of Misery By Pointing To The Sun; He Denies The Existence Of The Sun By Pointing To Misery.
Sun
Misery
Deny
If Education Tries To Make Other Persons Out Of Us Than We Essentially Are, Deeper Inside, It Stultifies, And Reproach Matters.
Trying
Matter
Deeper
One Can Disintegrate The World By Means Of Very Strong Light. For Weak Eyes The World Becomes Solid, For Still Weaker Eyes It Seems To Develop Fists, For Eyes Weaker Still It Becomes Shamefaced And Smashes Anyone Who Dares To Gaze Upon It.
Strong
Mean
Eye
I Never Imagined That So Many Days Would Ultimately Make Such A Small Life.
Small Life
"don't You Want To Join Us?" I Was Recently Asked By An Acquaintance When He Ran Across Me Alone After Midnight In A Coffeehouse That Was Already Almost Deserted. "no, I Don't," I Said.
Sad
Midnight
Want
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.
People
Mind
Wish
The State We Find Ourselves In Is Sinful Quite Independent Of Guilt.
Independent
Guilt
States
Man Cannot Live Without A Continuous Confidence In Something Indestructible Within Himself.
Men
Indestructible
Ours Is A Lost Generation, It May Be, But It Is More Blameless Than Those Earlier Generations.
Generations
May
Lost
I Usually Solve Problems By Letting Them Devour Me.
Problem
Solve
This Perversion Of The Truth, Familiar To The Artist Though It Was, Always Unnerved Him Afresh And Proved Too Much For Him. What Was A Consequence Of The Premature Ending Of His Fast Was Here Presented As The Cause Of It! To Fight Against This Lack Of Understanding, Against A Whole World Of Nonunderstanding, Was Impossible.
Fighting
Artist
Understanding
By Imposing Too Great A Responsibility, Or Rather, All Responsibility, On Yourself, You Crush Yourself.
Inspirational
Life
Crush
People Label Themselves With All Sorts Of Adjectives. I Can Only Pronounce Myself As 'nauseatingly Miserable Beyond Repair'.
People
Adjectives
Labels
Two Possibilities: Making Oneself Infinitely Small Or Being So. The Second Is Perfection, That Is To Say, Inactivity, The First Is Beginning, That Is To Say, Action.
Two
Perfection
Firsts
Dread Of Night. Dread Of Not-night.
Fear
Night
Dread
Someone Must Have Slandered Josef K., For One Morning, Without Having Done Anything Truly Wrong, He Was Arrested.
Morning
Done
Arrested
It's Impossible To Defend Oneself In The Absence Of Goodwill
Impossible
Absence
Goodwill
Writing Sustains Me. But Wouldn’t It Be Better To Say It Sustains This Kind Of Life? Which Doesn't Mean Life Is Any Better When I Don’t Write. On The Contrary, It Is Far Worse, Wholly Unbearable, And Inevitably Ends In Madness. This Is, Of Course, Only On The Assumption That I Am A Writer Even When I Don’t Write - Which Is Indeed The Case; And A Non-writing Writer Is, In Fact, A Monster Courting Insanity.
Writing
Mean
Insanity
The Existence Of The Writer Is An Argument Against The Existence Of The Soul, For The Soul Has Obviously Taken Flight From The Real Ego, But Not Improved Itself, Only Become A Writer.
Real
Taken
Ego
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.
Liberty
Atlas
Literature
Martyrs Do Not Underrate The Body, They Allow It To Be Elevated On The Cross. In This They Are At One With Their Antagonists.
Literature
Body
Crosses
The Old Incapacity. Interrupted My Writing For Barely Ten Days And Already Cast Out. Once Again Prodigious Efforts Stand Before Me. You Have To Dive Down, As It Were, And Sink More Rapidly Than That Which Sinks In Advance Of You.
Writing
Effort
Incapacity
Kill Me, Or You Are A Murderer.
Kill Me
Murderer
The Man In Ecstasy And The Man Drowning: Both Raise Their Arms.
Men
Arms
He Man
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.
Writing
Thinking
Darkness
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.
Grateful
Facts
Should
Not Everyone Can See The Truth, But He Can Be It.
Literature
The Fact That Our Task Is Exactly Commensurate With Our Life Gives It The Appearance Of Being Infinite.
Giving
Tasks
Literature
Better To Have, And Not Need, Than To Need, And Not Have.
Needs
Disaster Preparedness
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.
Always Trying
Trying
Bones
In A Certain Sense The Good Is Comfortless.
Literature
Goodness
Certain
One Has Just Been Sent Out As A Biblical Dove, Has Found Nothing Green, And Slips Back Into The Darkness Of The Ark
Biblical
Darkness
Green
The History Of Mankind Is The Instant Between Two Strides Taken By A Traveler.
Travel
Taken
Two
Officials Are Highly Educated But One-sided; In His Own Department An Official Can Grasp Whole Trains Of Thought From A Single Word, But Let Him Have Something From Another Department Explained To Him ... He Won't Understand A Word Of It.
Train Of Thought
Educated
Single Word
Sometimes I'd Like To Stuff All Jews (myself Included) Into The Drawer Of A Laundry Basket. Then Open It To See If They've Suffocated
Stuff
Sometimes
Laundry
Alas," Said The Mouse, "the Whole World Is Growing Smaller Every Day. At The Beginning It Was So Big That I Was Afraid, I Kept Running And Running, And I Was Glad When I Saw Walls Far Away To The Right And Left, But These Long Walls Have Narrowed So Quickly That I Am In The Last Chamber Already, And There In The Corner Stands The Trap That I Must Run Into." "you Only Need To Change Your Direction," Said The Cat, And Ate It Up.
Running
Wall
Cat
So Eager Are Our People To Obliterate The Present.
People
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Category
Information