Could he be an animal if music moved him so deeply? He felt as though a path were opening toward the unknown nourishment he had longed for.
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FRANZ KAFKA · 1883–1924
Kafka Quotes
Explore Franz Kafka on solitude, belonging, change and the strange edges of everyday life.
For we are like tree trunks in the snow. They seem to rest lightly on its surface, as though a small push could move them aside. No, that cannot be done, because they are firmly joined to the ground. But look, even that is only an appearance.
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I stand on the platform of the electric tram, entirely uncertain of my place in this world, in this city, in my family.
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One morning, waking from troubled dreams, Gregor Samsa found that he had changed in his bed into an enormous verminous creature.
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What if I went on sleeping a little longer and forgot all this madness?
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If only Gregor could have spoken with his sister and thanked her for everything she had to do for him, he would have found her care easier to bear; as things were, it caused him pain.
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None of Gregor’s pleading helped, and none of it was understood; however humbly he turned his head, his father only stamped his feet more fiercely.
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He scarcely wondered at how little consideration he had shown the others lately; once, that consideration had been his pride.
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Some people may feel sorry for me, but I feel nothing of their sympathy.
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I weigh my past against my future and find both excellent. I cannot prefer either one; I can only reproach the unfairness of providence for favouring me so much.
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Consider the persuasive power of the air after a thunderstorm! My own merits appear before me and overwhelm me, though I offer no resistance.
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Rising out of misery ought to be easy, even with energy summoned by an act of will.
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But even if it works, every inevitable mistake will bring the whole thing to a halt, the easy and the difficult alike, and I will have to turn back in a circle.
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When you mingle your voice with other voices, you are caught as if on a fishing hook.
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On reflection, nothing can make it tempting to want to finish first in a race.
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Yes, we are both right, and so that we do not become irrefutably aware of it, we would rather each go home alone, would we not?
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Nothing could have stopped us; we were running with such momentum that even while overtaking one another we could fold our arms and look calmly around.
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