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6bbb4b8
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I'm doing badly, I'm doing well, whichever you prefer.
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Franz Kafka |
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b5e0b75
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Forget everything. Open the windows. Clear the room. The wind blows through it. You see only its emptiness, you search in every corner and don't find yourself.
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Franz Kafka |
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1af79e9
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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.
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Franz Kafka |
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551442f
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Someone must have slandered Josef K., for one morning, without having done anything truly wrong, he was arrested.
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Franz Kafka |
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e9585b7
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What's happened to me,' he thought. It was no dream.
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reality
dreams
surprise
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Franz Kafka |
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6a12803
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Everyone carries a room about inside him. This fact can even be proved by means of the sense of hearing. If someone walks fast and one pricks up one's ears and listens, say in the night, when everything round about is quiet, one hears, for instance, the rattling of a mirror not quite firmly fastened to the wall.
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Franz Kafka |
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9db5a23
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I want in fact more of you. In my mind I am dressing you with light; I am wrapping you up in blankets of complete acceptance and then I give myself to you. I long for you; I who usually long without longing, as though I am unconscious and absorbed in neutrality and apathy, really, utterly long for every bit of you.
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Franz Kafka |
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58116c8
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But I'm not guilty," said K. "there's been a mistake. How is it even possible for someone to be guilty? We're all human beings here, one like the other." "That is true" said the priest "but that is how the guilty speak"
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human
life
human-condition
trial
priest
mistakes
guilty
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Franz Kafka |
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129c292
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Writing is a deeper sleep than death.
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Franz Kafka |
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b14e489
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If I could drown in sleep as I drown in fear I would be no longer alive.
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Franz Kafka |
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47955e3
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I like to make use of what I know
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Franz Kafka |
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2dea649
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So then you're free?' 'Yes, I'm free,' said Karl, and nothing seemed more worthless than his freedom.
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Franz Kafka |
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1d17b30
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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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kafka
metamorphosis
trial
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Franz Kafka |
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8ffe10b
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My condition is not unhappiness, but it is also not happiness, not indifference, not weakness, not fatigue, not another interest - so what is it then?
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Franz Kafka |
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9d8bbf1
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All knowledge, the totality of all questions and answers, is contained in the dog.
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Franz Kafka |
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7f9597f
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I can't feel a thing; All mournful petal storms are dancing inside the very private spring of my head.
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Franz Kafka |
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ad81f68
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You must not pay too much attention to opinions. The written word is unalterable, and opinions are often only an expression of despair.
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Franz Kafka |
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c981219
|
I only fear danger where I want to fear it.
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fear
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Franz Kafka |
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d9e37fb
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The sister played so beautifully. Her face was tilted to one side and she followed the notes with soulful and probing eyes. Gregor advanced a little, keeping his eyes low so that they might possibly meet hers. Was he a beast if music could move him so?
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Franz Kafka |
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f905a47
|
What a fate: to be condemned to work for a firm where the slightest negligence at once gave rise to the gravest suspicion! Were all the employees nothing but a bunch of scoundrels, was there not among them one single loyal devoted man who, had he wasted only an hour or so of the firm's time in the morning, was so tormented by conscience as to be driven out of his mind and actually incapable of leaving his bed?
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Franz Kafka |
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c4ed920
|
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.
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tongue
language
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Franz Kafka |
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c85a24d
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the poisonous world flows into my mouth like water into that of a drowning man
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Franz Kafka |
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8355f6a
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I am not well; I could have built the Pyramids with the effort it takes me to cling on to life and reason.
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Franz Kafka |
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ae5846b
|
I can't think of anything to write about, I'm just walking around here between the lines, under the light of your eyes, in the breadth of your mouth as in a beautiful happy day, which remains beautiful and happy, even when the head is sick and tired.
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Franz Kafka |
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6e3adb0
|
Go on caring for me.
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Franz Kafka |
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de574d8
|
And so gentlemen, I learned. Oh, if you have to learn, you learn; if you're desperate for a way out, you learn; you learn pitilessly. You stand over yourself with a whip in your hand; if there's the least resistance, you lash yourself.
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Franz Kafka |
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a24bb41
|
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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Franz Kafka |
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eeedaab
|
It seems to be a fact that man, tortured by his demons, avenges himself blindly on his fellow-man.
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Franz Kafka |
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137bac3
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One has either to take people as they are, or leave them as they are. One cannot change them, one can merely disturb their balance. A human being, after all, is not made up of single pieces, from which a single piece can be taken out and replaced by something else.
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Franz Kafka |
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9108341
|
I long for you; I who usually longs without longing, as though I am unconscious and absorbed in neutrality and apathy, really, utterly long for every bit of you.
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love-quotes
letters-to-milena
longing
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Franz Kafka |
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4beca93
|
It's impossible to defend oneself in the absence of goodwill
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Franz Kafka |
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7c30829
|
My doubts stand in a circle around every word, I see them before I see the word, but what then! I do not see the word at all, I invent it.
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Franz Kafka |
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9a18bef
|
the blend of absurd, surreal and mundane which gave rise to the adjective "kafkaesque"
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Franz Kafka |
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f0a5975
|
If a man has his eyes bound, you can encourage him as much as you like to stare through the bandage, but he'll never see anything.
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motivational
life-lessons
existential
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Franz Kafka |
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a777ce7
|
it was like this. the brain could no longer bear the worries and pains that were imposed on it. it said: "i'm giving up; but if there is anyone else here who is interested in preserving the whole, let him assume part of my burden and it will be alright for a bit."
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Franz Kafka |
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928ab67
|
You misinterpret everything, even the silence.
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Franz Kafka |
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43d8fac
|
Each of us has his own way of emerging from the underworld, mine is by writing. That's why the only way I can keep going, if at all, is by writing, not through rest and sleep. I am far more likely to achieve peace of mind through writing than the capacity to write through peace.
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writing
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Franz Kafka |
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a48d174
|
Milena - what a rich heavy name, almost too full to be lifted, and in the beginning I didn't like it much, it seemed to me a Greek or Roman gone astray in Bohemia, violated by Czech, cheated of its accent, and yet in colour and form it is marvellously a woman, a woman whom one carries in one's arms out of the world, and out of the fire, I don't know which, and she presses herself willingly and trustingly into your arms.
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Franz Kafka |
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498912a
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I stand on the end platform of the tram and am completely unsure of my footing in this world, in this town, in my family. Not even casually could I indicate any claims that I might rightly advance in any direction. I have not even any defense to offer for standing on this platform, holding on to this strap, letting myself be carried along by this tram, nor for the people who give way to the tram or walk quietly along or stand gazing into sh..
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Franz Kafka |
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1b049a7
|
And don't demand any sincerity from me, Milena. No one can demand it from me more than I myself and yet many things elude me, I'm sure, perhaps everything eludes me.
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Franz Kafka |
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98026d9
|
Calm --indeed the calmest-- reflection might be better than the most confused decisions
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Franz Kafka |
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226c752
|
I feel an unhappiness which almost dismembers me, and at the same time am convinced of its necessity
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Franz Kafka |
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4b453e7
|
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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Franz Kafka |
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2bd9973
|
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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Franz Kafka |