Quotes

“Scepticism, that dry caries of the intelligence.” Victor Hugo

“To think is of itself to be useful; it is always and in all cases a striving toward God.” Victor Hugo

“One of the hardest tasks is to extract continually from one's soul an almost inexhaustible ill will.” Victor Hugo

“The omnipotence of evil has never resulted in anything but fruitless efforts. Our thoughts always escape from whoever tries to smother them.” Victor Hugo

“The little people must be sacred to the big ones, and it is from the rights of the weak that the duty of the strong is comprised.” Victor Hugo

“Without vanity, without coquetry, without curiosity, in a word, without the fall, woman would not be woman. Much of her grace is in her frailty.” Victor Hugo

“The three great problems of this century; the degradation of man in the proletariat, the subjection of women through hunger, the atrophy of the child by darkness.” Victor Hugo

“One sometimes says: 'He killed himself because he was bored with life.' One ought rather to say: 'He killed himself because he was bored by lack of life.'” Victor Hugo

“By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired.” Franz Kafka

“Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy.” Franz Kafka

“You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.” Franz Kafka

“My peers, lately, have found companionship through means of intoxication - it makes them sociable. I, however, cannot force myself to use drugs to cheat on my loneliness - it is all that I have - and when the drugs and alcohol dissipate, will be all that my peers have as well.” Franz Kafka

“Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.” Franz Kafka

“A first sign of the beginning of understanding is the wish to die.” Franz Kafka

“From a certain point onward there is no longer any turning back. That is the point that must be reached.” Franz Kafka

“You can hold yourself back from the sufferings of the world, that is something you are free to do and it accords with your nature, but perhaps this very holding back is the one suffering you could avoid.” Franz Kafka

“Always first draw fresh breath after outbursts of vanity and complacency.” Franz Kafka

“A man of action forced into a state of thought is unhappy until he can get out of it.” Franz Kafka

“It is not necessary that you leave the house. Remain at your table and listen. Do not even listen, only wait. Do not even wait, be wholly still and alone. The world will present itself to you for its unmasking, it can do no other, in ecstasy it will writhe at your feet.” Franz Kafka

“Youth is happy because it has the ability to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.” Franz Kafka

“Don Quixote's misfortune is not his imagination, but Sancho Panza.” Franz Kafka

“I do not read advertisements. I would spend all of my time wanting things.” Franz Kafka

“So long as you have food in your mouth, you have solved all questions for the time being.” Franz Kafka

“Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before.” Franz Kafka

“A stair not worn hollow by footsteps is, regarded from its own point of view, only a boring something made of wood.” Franz Kafka

“Believing in progress does not mean believing that any progress has yet been made.” Franz Kafka

“Atlas was permitted the opinion that he was at liberty, if he wished, to drop the Earth and creep away; but this opinion was all that he was permitted.” Franz Kafka

“Sensual love deceives one as to the nature of heavenly love; it could not do so alone, but since it unconsciously has the element of heavenly love within it, it can do so.” Franz Kafka

“May I kiss you then? On this miserable paper? I might as well open the window and kiss the night air.” Franz Kafka

“Anyone who cannot come to terms with his life while he is alive needs one hand to ward off a little his despair over his fate... but with his other hand he can note down what he sees among the ruins.” Franz Kafka