If it had been possible to build the Tower of Babel without climbing it, it would have been permitted.
— Franz Kafka
Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before.
God gives the nuts, but he does not crack them.
A first sign of the beginning of understanding is the wish to die.
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.
From a certain point onward there is no longer any turning back. That is the point that must be reached.
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.
Evil is whatever distracts.
No sooner said than done - so acts your man of worth.
The experience of life consists of the experience which the spirit has of itself in matter and as matter, in mind and as mind, in emotion, as emotion, etc.
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.
A stair not worn hollow by footsteps is, regarded from its own point of view, only a boring something made of wood.
So long as you have food in your mouth, you have solved all questions for the time being.
In theory there is a possibility of perfect happiness: To believe in the indestructible element within one, and not to strive towards it.
I have the true feeling of myself only when I am unbearably unhappy.
My guiding principle is this: Guilt is never to be doubted.
My 'fear' is my substance, and probably the best part of me.
Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy.
Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.
I do not read advertisements. I would spend all of my time wanting things.
A book should serve as the ax for the frozen sea within us.
How can one take delight in the world unless one flees to it for refuge?
Don't despair, not even over the fact that you don't despair.
Youth is happy because it has the ability to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.
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.
May I kiss you then? On this miserable paper? I might as well open the window and kiss the night air.
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.
In the fight between you and the world, back the world.
In argument similes are like songs in love; they describe much, but prove nothing.
By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired.
Start with what is right rather than what is acceptable.
