Dread of night. Dread of not-night.
I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us.
Sometimes I'd like to stuff all Jews (myself included) into the drawer of a laundry basket. then open it to see if they've suffocated
The Kafka paradox: art depends on truth, but truth, being indivisable, cannot know itself: to tell the truth is to lie. thus the writer is the truth, and yet when he speakes he lies.
There sat I, a faded being, under faded leaves.
I wanted to escape the unrest, to shut out the voices around me and within me, so I write.
You too have weapons.
From outside one will always triumphantly impress theories upon the world and then fall straight into the ditch one has dug, but only from inside will one keep oneself and the world quiet and true.
To every instant there is a correspondence in something outside time. This world here and now cannot be followed by a Beyond, for the Beyond is eternal, hence it cannot be in temporal contact with this world here and now.
What's happened to me,' he thought. It was no dream.
What if I slept a little more and forgot about all this nonsense.
It isn't necessary that you leave home. Sit at your desk and listen. Don't even listen, just wait. Don't wait, be still and alone. The whole world will offer itself to you.
Psychology is the description of the reflection of the terrestial world in the heavenly plane, or, more correctly, the description of a reflection such as we, soaked as we are in our terrestial nature, imagine it, for no reflection actually occurs, only we see earth wherever we turn.
For words are magical formulae. They leave finger marks be hind on the brain, which in the twinkling of an eye become the footprints of history. One ought to watch one' s every word.
Writing sustains me. But wouldn’t it be better to say it sustains this kind of life? Which doesn't mean life is any better when I don’t write. On the contrary, it is far worse, wholly unbearable, and inevitably ends in madness. This is, of course, only on the assumption that I am a writer even when I don’t write - which is indeed the case; and a non-writing writer is, in fact, a monster courting insanity.
One can disintegrate the world by means of very strong light. For weak eyes the world becomes solid, for still weaker eyes it seems to develop fists, for eyes weaker still it becomes shamefaced and smashes anyone who dares to gaze upon it.
Slept, awoke, slept, awoke, miserable life.
German is my mother tongue and as such more natural to me, but I consider Czech much more affectionate, which is why your letter removes several uncertainties; I see you more clearly, the movements of your body, your hands, so quick, so resolute, it’s almost like a meeting.
From the true antagonist illimitable courage is transmitted to you.To what indifference people may come, to what profound conviction of having lost the right track forever.
Hold fast to the diary from today on! Write regularly! Don't surrender! Even if no salvation should come, I want to be worthy of it every moment.
They were offered the choice between becoming kings or the couriers of kings. The way children would, they all wanted to be couriers. Therefore there are only couriers who hurry about the world, shouting to each other - since there are no kings - messages that have become meaningless. They would like to put an end to this miserable life of theirs but they dare not because of their oaths of service.
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.
The worries that are the burden of which the privileged person makes an excuse in dealing with the oppressed person are in fact the worries about preserving his privileged condition.
People label themselves with all sorts of adjectives. I can only pronounce myself as 'nauseatingly miserable beyond repair'.
Our art is a way of being dazzled by truth: the light on the grotesquely grimacing retreating face is true, and nothing else.
How can one take delight in the world unless one flees to it for refuge?
Simply wait, be quiet, still The world will freely offer itself to you.
One must not cheat anyone, not even the world of its victory.
Either the world is so tiny or we are enormous; in either case, we fill it completely.
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.
I answer one of your letters, then lie in bed in apparent calm, but my heart beats through my entire body and is conscious only of you. I belong to you; there is really no other way of expressing it, and that is not strong enough.
Every dog has like me the impulse to question, and I have like every dog the impulse not to answer.
Palestine needs earth, but it does not need lawyers.
There will be no proof that I ever was a writer.
This morning, for the first time in a long time, the joy again of imagining a knife twisted in my heart.
No sooner said than done - so acts your man of worth.
Everyone carries a room about inside him. This fact can even be proved by means of the sense of hearing. If someone walks fast and one pricks up one’s ears and listens, say in the night, when everything round about is quiet, one hears, for instance, the rattling of a mirror not quite firmly fastened to the wall.
There is an infinite amount of hope in the universe ... but not for us.
There is a destination but no way there; what we refer to as way is hesitation.
My doubts stand in a circle around every word, I see them before I see the word, but what then! I do not see the word at all, I invent it.
One reads in order to ask questions
It is strange how little sharpsightedness women possess; they only notice whether they please, then whether they arouse pity, and finally, whether you look for compassion from them. That is all; come to think of it, it may even be enough, generally speaking.
I made the remark that I don't avoid people in order to live quietly, but rather in order to be able to die quietly.
Human judgment of human actions is true and void , that is to say, first true and then void.... The judgment of the word is true, the judgment in itself is void.... Only he who is a party can really judge, but as a party he cannot judge. Hence it follows that there is no possibility of judgment in the world, only a glimmer of it.
Books are a narcotic.
The crows maintain that a single crow could destroy the heavens. There is no doubt of that, but it proves nothing against the heavens, for heaven simply means: the impossibility of crows.
All knowledge, the totality of all questions and all answers, is contained in the dog. If one could but realize this knowledge, if one could but bring it into the light of day, if we dogs would but own that we know infinitely more than we admit to ourselves!
If I shall exist eternally, how shall I exist tomorrow?
Paths are made by walking
A non-writing writer is a monster courting insanity.
Writing means revealing oneself to excess.
There are times when I am convinced I am unfit for any human relationship.
If all responsibility is imposed on you, then you may want to exploit the moment and want to be overwhelmed by the responsibility;yet if you try, you will notice that nothing was imposed on you, but that you are yourself this responsibility.
All language is but a poor translation.
It is often safer to be in chains than to be free.
I do not see the world at all; I invent it.
He who seeks does not find, but he who does not seek will be found.
From the true antagonist illimitable courage is transmitted to you.
It receives you when you come and dismisses you when you go.
To write prescriptions is easy, but to come to an understanding with people is hard.
