October 19: The inner world can only be experienced, not described.

— Franz Kafka

He who does not answer the questions has passed the test.

— Franz Kafka

I am free and that is why I am lost.

— Franz Kafka

Letter from Franz Kafka to Felice Bauer

Don't bend; don't water it down; don't try to make it logical; don't edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.

— Franz Kafka

People haven't lost the ability to feel. They have lost the power to feel.

— Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka an Milena Jesenská, 29. Juli 1920

He [Franz Kafka] was shy, timid, gentle, and kind, but he wrote gruesome and painful books. He saw the world as full of invisible demons, who tear apart and destroy defenseless people. He was too clear-sighted and too wise to be able to live; he was too weak to fight, he had that weakness of noble, beautiful people who are not able to do battle against the fear of misunderstandings, unkindness, or intellectual lies. Such persons know beforehand that they are powerless and go down in defeat in such a way that they shame the victor. He knew people as only people of great sensitivity are able to know them, as somebody who is alone and sees people almost prophetically, from one flash of a face. He knew the world in a deep and extraordinary manner. He was himself a deep and extraordinary world.

— Milená Jesenská