As Gregor Samoa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.

— 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

At the same time all the houses round about promptly took part in this silence, and so did the darkness above them, reaching as far as the stars. And the footsteps of invisible passers-by, whose course I had no wish to guess at, the wind that kept on driving against the other side of the street, the gramophone singing behind closed windows in some room - they made themselves heard in this silence, as if they had owned it for ever and ever.

— Franz Kafka

Books are a narcotic.

— Franz Kafka

But all remains unchanged.

— Franz Kafka

But I’m not guilty,” said K. “there’s been a mistake. How is it even possible for someone to be guilty? We’re all human beings here, one like the other.” “That is true” said the priest “but that is how the guilty speak

— Franz Kafka

But what if all the tranquility, all the comfort, all the contentment were now to come to a horrifying end?

— Franz Kafka

But what now if all the peace, the comfort, the contentment were to come to a horrible end?

— Franz Kafka

Concerning this a man once said:Why such reluctance? If you only followed the parables you yourselves would become parables and with that rid of all your daily cares. Another said: I bet that is also a parable. The first said: You have won. The second said: But unfortunately only in parable. The first said: No, in reality; in parable you have lost.

— Franz Kafka

Could K. represent the congregation all by himself? What if he had been a stranger merely visiting the church? That was more or less his position.

— Franz Kafka