Franz Kafka

What is important is to be able to stand on one's own feet, to be able to say 'I'.

The greatest danger is that you take yourself too seriously.

My whole being is a being for writing. I am nothing else, and can be nothing else.

The fact that there is a world, that there are things, that there are people, that there are events, is a source of constant amazement to me.

One must have a heart of stone to read the newspaper.

You are free and that is why you are lost.

I have hardly anything in common with myself and should stand very quietly in a corner, content that I can breathe.

My life is a long, hesitant, painful attempt to write.

The infinite in the finite, that's what I'm looking for.

I am afraid of all the things that are not yet. I am afraid of the future.

I do not want to be a burden on anyone. I want to be able to live alone and to die alone.

The greatest joy is to be able to do what you want.

The world is a terrible place, but it is the only one we have.

What we do is always a matter of indifference, but how we do it, that's important.

The greatest strength of the soul is the power to endure.

You can choose to be anything you want to be, but you can't be everything you want to be.

The truth is always an abyss. One must be careful when approaching it.

I am a man of letters, and I am nothing else.

The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.

It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.