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.
— Franz Kafka
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Knowledge must seep into your blood, into your self, not just into your head, you must live it.
— Franz Kafka
Anyone who has no feeling for it cannot be made to understand it.
— Franz Kafka
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It's only because of their stupidity that they're able to be so sure of themselves.
— Franz Kafka
To fight against this lack of understanding, against a whole world of non-understanding, was impossible.
— Franz Kafka
It will strike if you let it. It will strike if you understand and accept that it may come from the most unexpected of places.
— Franz Kafka
He was weak the way noble, beautiful people are.
— Milena Jesenská; about Franz Kafka
Beyond a certain point there is no return. This point has to be reached.
— Franz Kafka
People talk loud and long, in order to say as little as possible. The really true and interesting things are the intrigues in the background, about which not a word is mentioned.
— Franz Kafka