Quotes by Franz Kafka


Franz Kafka
(3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924)
one of the major fiction writers of the 20th century. His unique body of writing—much of which is incomplete and which was mainly published posthumously—is among the most influential in Western literature. His stories, such as The Metamorphosis, and novels, including The Trial and The Castle, concern troubled individuals in a nightmarishly impersonal and bureaucratic world.

to cheat on my loneliness

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.

— Franz Kafka

observation of the inner world

How pathetically scanty my self-knowledge is compared with, say, my knowledge of my room. There is no such thing as observation of the inner world, as there is of the outer world.

— Franz Kafka

Association with human beings

Association with human beings lures one into self-observation.

— Franz Kafka