How to Know If a Girl Wants You (8 Steps) | eHow
This can be difficult, since I don't know the girls personality like you do. So you are going to have learn to be the best judge of this and study the girls personality. Study the way she is with you, compared to others for starters. Don't over think it and just look for very simple signs like body language, interactions with you, and nerves even.
Girls set off all kinds of signals. Sometimes guys aren't always aware of them. Most the time a person second guesses these simple signals. Girls can do this without even realizing it as well, when it comes to setting them off. It's really not very difficult to figure whether they are interested in you most of the time. Some girls honestly try to hide it for personal reasons. There can be interest there, but they've not decided yet if they can trust you or not, to go down that path. A lot of times you'll notice a little hostility which would appear they hate you. If you've honestly never done anything to offend them, then this can mean they are interested, but they are trying to fight the interest that they have. The lack of trust, combine with interest turns into hostility. Women aren't always easy to figure out. They are a very careful sex. Especially as they get older, they learn to protect themselves and it takes more effort than when they were younger. Smiles and positive body language tells you what you want to know most of the time. It's just being able to read these emotions and signs effectively.
common sense
understanding human emotions
Talk to them. This is important, you got to talk to them if you are going to get an accurate read on the situation. Or just to let a girl make up her own mind on the subject. If a girl is just looking at you a lot, and you're wondering, then you are probably wondering wrong. At least on them really wanting you at this point. How can she really want you, if she doesn't really know you? She might be checking you out, because she potentially might be interested. She might think you are cute. Depending on the age group, chances are she definitely doesn't know yet. It usually just means that she is interested in wanting to know more about you. Girls and especially women need to get a read on a guys personality most of the time, before they can tell if they do want you or not.
Do they communicate a lot to you? Does she seem to talk about a lot of different subjects to you? Women like to talk, they all do. If she is opening up to you a lot, especially talking about things that are personal to her, then this is good. That is a very good sign she's possibly interested. When it comes to guys, women want a man who they can open up to. Yes it's in their nature to be pretty open, but not usually to guys they don't want or like. If they are opening up to you and they are communicating, not just giving small talk, that's a very good sign she's possibly into you. If she's able to talk about things that are personal, sometimes sensitive and emotional(good and bad), then only you can screw it up at this point. You can't just go on this step alone though. It's very positive and indicates she's definitely developing what could be feelings. But there's still more you have to find out to be certain. Communication for a girl, to a guy, effectively, is a great sign though.
She smiles and laughs a lot. This is a very easy way to figure it out. If she is talking to you and she tends to smile a lot. Do you also find she laughs a lot at what you say, even when it's not all that funny? Dead give away, she's clearly not just laughing and smiling to be polite either. Once or twice is polite. All the time is not just being polite, or just friendly. If she does this with everyone, then okay, that's different and unusual. She either likes everyone or it's just her very unusual personality. See when people get a bit nervous and excited around an individual, they tend to laugh and smile a lot more. It's their way of expressing themselves, even if they aren't fully aware of this. It's a dead give away majority of the time that they like that person, more than just in a friendly way. Just use common sense. Do you sit there and smile at and laugh at your guy friends 24/7? Laughing maybe if they are really funny, but smile? No, of course you don't. Whenever you smile, and she smiles back, she's interested.
Eye contact and body language. This is very tricky and a two way streak sometimes. This requires you to understand these concepts. If you notice she tends to give you eye contact, especially when you are talking that's a good sign. That's not it, that's typical, right? Just giving eye contract doesn't mean they want you. Everyone can give eye contact, but it's the kind of eye contract they give you. It's not just the eye contact, but it's her body language as well. Concentrate on how she's looking at you. This may be difficult for some, but if she's looking you dead center into your eyes and has a very pleasant look that's a start. Look for a half smile, or any smiles at all when talking to her. Relaxed eyes staring at you, with a pleasant look when you are talking, indicates she's interested in what you are saying and what you think. If she's giving that look of interest, she's clearly interested in your thoughts. Which to women is a pretty big deal. A person's thoughts mean a lot to girls. Maybe not to guys, but girls are different. Sometimes she may look away too, but that's usually nerves. So don't worry about that. If she's not looking into your eyes at all when you are talking, but not fidgeting with her body movement. She's not nervous, she's just bored and not interested.
The flip side to this step is if she's avoiding eye contact. Now sometimes a person avoids contact because they are nervous. A few tips on this. If she is talking a bit fast, or soft, and looking down a lot. Or she's stuttering a little bit on her words, that's nerves. Nerves could definitely mean she's interested, but you have to know her personality. Is she typically just shy in general, or not? You got to figure that out yourself. If you know her well enough and she's typically not this way, then that's very helpful in knowing there's interest that's established with her. But if she's just looking away a lot and her body language looks relaxed, that's bad. If she's not fidgeting and her speech pattern seems calm, normal, and clear when speaking, that's not nerves. I hate to say it, she's probably not interested in you. Look for how she reacts in general. If she has no reaction, or much facial exchanges at all, she's not interested. You are going to have to use your own judgment to figure this out and your knowledge on this girls personality. Don't make it more complicated than it is. Pleasant eyes, half smiles, or even full smiles, and a focused look is what you are lookin
She's asking about your dating status. She might not know, but if you feel she does know, then she clearly wants you. Such an hint to pick up in a girl, is when she knows and asks anyways. This is usually a dead giveaway in her hinting to ask you out, only if she knows this and is still asking. You can't read too much into if she doesn't know though. Sometimes this can be just a casual question. But say you've known her well enough for awhile, she's never asked before and the question pops up, that's not always a very random one then. Very good chance she is curious and is giving you a hint to ask her out if you are interested as well.
Staring trick. Sometimes you don't even have to say anything at all. Let her reaction tell you if she's interested. People's natural reactions are difficult to fake and hide. Just stare right into her eyes, look nice and relaxed(don't glare at her) and watch how she reacts. If she scowls at you, or looks confused, she might not be interested and probably isn't. If her face lights up and blushes she clearly is. If she smiles without blushing or winks at you, she's telling you to ask her out. If she laughs, tough call there. If she laughs as if how silly. Usually her eye brows will point down, when laughing in that manner. It could mean she likes you, but probably just as a friend. It's possible she might not have acknowledge her feelings to herself if she has more than just a friendship feeling. So I guess you can't read too much out of that. If she blushes when she laughs, it's a dead give away she wants you though.
Going out of her way to compliment you. An easy way to figure this out, is compliments. Especially when she's going out of her way to give you several. One casual compliment doesn't mean much, but if she's starting to comment on your shoes, or other things quite often it does. It appears she is sending signals to ask her out on a date. She's telling you she likes you and is into you. If you get a new haircut, she notices this, then she obviously takes notice of your appearance. Unless you've gone from a very long hair, to bald. Noticing subtle changes in you is important. Of course she wants you then if she notices and comments on these things. Whatever it is, whether it's physical compliments, or &nice job& ones, she couldn't make herself anymore obvious. One or two is being nice. More than that is making it obvious.
How she dresses and looks. Easy sign, but most girls tend to like to look in general. If you notice she tends to dress particularly nice and is wearing more perfume for you, then it's obvious. That's a pretty good sign she's into you. Then again, this is women we're talking about, right? I've known women who have dressed up just to go to the gas station. So I guess advice like this doesn't help much is most cases Depends on her style and her personality. Some girls are casual, but if you find she's not with you, then she's doing it for you. If she tends to not make any real effort to look nice around you, then I can't say that's a good thing.From Wikiquote
From a certain point onward there is no longer any turning back. That is the point that must be reached.
) was a Bohemian-Jewish novelist, and was one of the major German-language fiction writers of the 20th century.
Verlassen sind wir doch wie verirrte Kinder im Walde. Wenn Du vor mir stehst und mich ansiehst, was weisst Du von den Schmerzen, die in mir sind und was weiss ich von den Deinen. Und wenn ich mich vor Dir niederwerfen würde und weinen und erz?hlen, was wüsstest Du von mir mehr als von der H?lle, wenn Dir jemand erz?hlt, sie ist heiss und fürchterlich. Schon darum sollten wir Menschen vor einander so ehrfürchtig, so nachdenklich, so liebend stehn wie vor dem Eingang zur H?lle.
We are as forlorn as children lost in the woods. When you stand in front of me and look at me, what do you know of the griefs that are in me and what do I know of yours. And if I were to cast myself down before you and weep and tell you, what more would you know about me than you know about Hell when someone tells you it is hot and dreadful? For that reason alone we human beings ought to stand before one another as reverently, as reflectively, as lovingly, as we would before the entrance to Hell.
Letter to Oskar Pollak, November 8, 1903; cited from Max Brod (ed.) Briefe,
(New York: Schocken, 1958) p. 27. Translation from Frederick R. Karl Franz Kafka, Representative Man (New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1991) p. 98.
Ich glaube, man sollte überhaupt nur solche Bücher lesen, die einen beissen und stechen. Wenn das Buch, das wir lesen, uns nicht mit einem Faustschlag auf den Sch?del weckt, wozu lesen wir dann das Buch? Damit es uns glücklich macht, wie Du schreibst? Mein Gott, glücklich w?ren wir eben auch, wenn wir keine Bücher h?tten, und solche Bücher, die uns glücklich machen, k?nnten wir zur Not selber schreiben. Wir brauchen aber die Bücher, die auf uns wirken wie ein Unglück, das uns sehr schmerzt, wie der Tod eines, den wir lieber hatten als uns, wie wenn wir in W?lder verstossen würden, von allen Menschen weg, wie ein Selbstmord, ein Buch muss die Axt sein für das gefrorene Meer in uns. Das glaube ich.
I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us. If the book we are reading doesn't wake us up with a blow on the head, what are we reading it for? ...we need the books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us.
Variant translations:
If the book we are reading does not wake us, as with a fist hammering on our skulls, then why do we read it? Good God, we also would be happy if we had no books and such books that make us happy we could, if need be, write ourselves. What we must have are those books that come on us like ill fortune, like the death of one we love better than ourselves, like suicide. A book must be an ice axe to break the sea frozen inside us.
What we need are books that hit us like a most painful misfortune, like the death of someone we loved more than we love ourselves, that make us feel as though we had been banished to the woods, far from any human presence, like a suicide. A book must be the ax for the frozen sea within us.
A book should be an ice-axe to break the frozen sea within us.
A book must be an ice-axe to break the seas frozen inside our soul.
A book should serve as the ax for the frozen sea within us.
Now the Sirens have a still more fatal weapon than their song, namely their silence... Someone might possibly have escape but from their silence, certainly never.
"The Silence of the Sirens" (October 1917).
Original: Liebe ist, dass du mir das Messer bist, mit dem ich in mir wühle. (From: Briefe an Milena. Frankfurt a.M.: S. Fischer. 2002. 12. Auflage)
In this love you are like a knife, with which I explore myself.
Plenty of hope—for God—no end of hope—only not for us
Statement to , quoted in Franz Kafka: A Biography [Franz Kafka, eine Biographie] (1937) by Max Brod, as translated by G. Humphreys Roberts and Richard Winston ()
plenty of hope, an infinite amount of hope—but not for us.
Alternate translation, Hamacher, Werner (1999) pg 303.
If you only followed the parables you yourselves would become parables and with that rid yourself of all your daily cares.
"On Parables" (1922)
As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into an enormous insect.
Original: Als Gregor Samsa eines Morgens aus unruhigen Tr?umen erwachte, fand er sich in seinem Bett zu einem ungeheuren Ungeziefer verwandelt.
First lines.
"Hey, there’s something falling down in there," said the chief clerk. Gregor tried to suppose to himself that what had happened to him might some day also happen to the chief clerk. There was no denying that anything was possible.
Many of these statements in Kafka's notebooks were later published posthumously in Parables and Paradoxes (1946), and The Blue Octavo Notebooks (1954) as translated by Ernst Kaiser and Eithne Wilkins ()
The true way is along a rope that is not spanned high in the air, but only just above the ground. It seems intended more to cause stumbling than to be walked upon.
All human errors are impatience, the premature breaking off of what is methodical, an apparent fencing in of the apparent thing.
Variant translation: All human errors are impatience, a premature breaking off of methodical procedure, an apparent fencing-in of what is apparently at issue.
There are two main human sins from which all the others derive: impatience and indolence. It was because of impatience that they were expelled from P it is because of indolence that they do not return. Yet perhaps there is only one major sin: impatience. Because of impatience they were expelled, because of impatience they do not return.
3 (20 October 1917); as published in The Blue Octavo Notebooks (1954); also in Dearest Father: Stories and Other Writings (1954); variant translations use "cardinal sins" instead of "main human sins" and "laziness" instead of "indolence".
Beyond a certain point there is no return. This point has to be reached.
5; variant translations:
From a certain point onward there is no longer any turning back. That is the point that must be reached.
As quoted in The Unfinished Country: A Book of American Symbols (1959) by Max Lerner, p. 452; also in Wait Without Idols (1964) by Gabriel Vahanian, p, 216; in Joyce, Decadence, and Emancipation (1995) by Vivian Heller, 39; in "The Sheltering Sky" (1949) by Paul Bowles, p. 213; and in the poem "Father and Son" by Delmore Schwartz.
There is a point of no return. This point has to be reached.
The decisive moment in human evolution is perpetual. That is why the revolutionary spiritual movements that declare all former things worthless are in the right, for nothing has yet happened.
To animalise is humane, to humanise is animal.
9 (parody of a quote from ).
One of the first signs of the beginnings of understanding is the wish to die. This life appears unbearable, another unattainable. One is no longer asham one asks to be moved from the old cell, which one hates, to a new one, which one will only in time come to hate.
A cage went in search of a bird.
If it had been possible to build the Tower of Babel without climbing it, it would have been permitted.
18; (9 November 1917) a slight variant of this was published in Parables and Paradoxes (1946): If it had been possible to build the Tower of Babel without ascending it, the work would have been permitted.
Leopards break into the temple and drink to the dregs what is in the
this is repeated finally it can be calculated in advance, and it becomes a part of the ceremony.
20 (10 November 1917).
From the true antagonist illimitable courage is transmitted to you.
Hiding places there are innumerable, escape is only one, but possibilities for escape, again, are as many as hiding places. There is a goal, what we call a way is hesitation.
When one has once accepted and absorbed Evil, it no longer demands to be believed.
The ulterior motives with which you absorb and assimilate Evil are not your own but those of Evil.
The animal wrests the whip from its master and whips itself in order to become master, not knowing that this is only a fantasy produced by a new knot in the master’s whiplash.
In a certain sense the Good is comfortless.
is something for which I do not strive. Self-control means wanting to be effective at some random point in the infinite radiations of my spiritual existence.
Martyrs do not underrate the body, they allow it to be elevated on the cross. In this they are at one with their antagonists.
His weariness is that of the gladia his work was the whitewashing of a corner in a state official's office.
Variant translation: His exhaustion is that of the gladiator after the fight, his work was the whitewashing of one corner in a clerk’s office.
Previously I did not understand why I got no a today I do not understand how I could believe I was capable of asking. But I didn’t really believe, I only asked.
The way is infinitely long, nothing of it can be subtracted, nothing can be added, and yet everyone applies his own childish yardstick to it. “Certainly, this yard of the way you still have to go, too, and it will be accounted unto you.”
It is only our conception of time that makes us call the Last Judgment by this name. It is, in fact, a kind of martial law.
Believing in progress does not mean believing that any progress has yet been made. That is not the sort of belief that indicates real faith.
Man cannot live without a permanent trust in something indestructible in himself, though both the indestructible element and the trust may remain permanently hidden from him. One of the ways in which this hiddenness can express itself is through faith in a personal god.
50; Der Mensch kann nicht leben ohne ein dauerndes Vertrauen zu etwas Unzerst?rbarem in sich, wobei sowohl das Unzerst?rbare als auch das Vertrauen ihm dauernd verborgen bleiben k?nnen. Eine der Ausdrucksm?glichkeiten dieses Verborgen-Bleibens ist der Glaube an einen pers?nlichen Gott.
The mediation by the serpent was necessary: Evil can seduce man, but cannot become man.
In the struggle between yourself and the world, second the world.
52, Im Kampf zwischen Dir und der Welt, sekundiere der Welt.
Aphorism 52 in
Variant translations:
In the struggle between yourself and the world, back the world.
In the struggle between yourself and the world, side with the world.
In the fight between you and the world, back the world.
One must not cheat anyone, not even the world of its victory.
Variant translation: One must not cheat anybody, not even the world of one's triumph.
There is nothing besid what we call the world of the senses is the Evil in the spiritual world, and what we call Evil is only the necessity of a moment in our eternal evolution.
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.
There are questions we could not get past if we were not set free from them by our very nature.
One tells as few lies as possible only by telling as few lies as possible, and not by having the least possible opportunity to do so.
The fact that there is nothing but a spiritual world deprives us of hope and gives us certainty.
Expulsion from Paradise is in its main aspect eternal: that is to say, although expulsion from Paradise is final, and life in the world unavoidable, the eternity of the process (or, expressed in temporal terms, the eternal repetition of the process) nevertheless makes it possible not only that we might remain in Paradise permanently, but that we may in fact be there permanently, no matter whether we know it here or not.
65; a slight variant of this statement was later published in Parables and Paradoxes (1946):
The expulsion from Paradise is in its main significance eternal:
Consequently the expulsion from Paradise is final, and life in this world irrevocable, but the eternal nature of the occurrence (or, temporally expressed, the eternal recapitulation of the occurrence) makes it nevertheless possible that not only could we live continuously in Paradise, but that we are continuously there in actual fact, no matter whether we know it here or not.
What is gayer than believing in a household god?
Theoretically there is a perfect possibility of happiness: believing in the indestructible element in oneself and not striving towards it.
The indestructible is one: it is each individual human being and, at the same time, it is common to all, hence the incomparably indivisible union that exists between human beings.
If what was supposed to have been destroyed in Paradise was destructible, then but if it was indestructible, then we are living in a false belief.
Test yourself on mankind. It is something that makes the doubter doubt, the believer believe.
Association with human beings lures one into self-observation.
Sensual love deceives one as to the nat it could not do so alone, but since it unconsciously has the element of heavenly love within it, it can do so.
Truth is indivisible, hence it can anyone who wants to recognize it has to be a lie.
Why do we complain about the Fall? It is not on its account that we were expelled from Paradise, but on account of the , lest we might eat of it.
82, a slight variant of this was later published in Parables and Paradoxes (1946):
Why do we lament over the fall of man? We were not driven out of Paradise because of it, but because of the Tree of Life, that we might not eat of it.
"Paradise".
The whole visible world is perhaps nothing more than than the rationalization of a man who wants to find peace for a moment. An attempt to falsify the actuality of knowledge, to regard knowledge as a goal still to be reached.
"Paradise".
We are sinful not only because we have eaten of the , but also because we have not yet eaten of the . The state in which we are is sinful, irrespective of guilt.
83, a slight variant of this was later published in Parables and Paradoxes (1946):
We are sinful not merely because we have eaten of the Tree of Knowledge, but also because we have not yet eaten of the Tree of Life. The state in which we find ourselves is sinful, quite independent of guilt.
Also quoted in this form in The Parables of Peanuts (1968) by Robert L. Short, and Like a Dream, Like a Fantasy: The Zen Teachings and Translations of Nyogen (2005).
Evil is a radiation of the human consciousness in certain transitional positions. It is not actually the sensual world that
what is so is the evil of it, which, admittedly, is what constitutes the sensual world in our eyes.
The whole visible world is perhaps nothing other than a motivation of man’s wish to rest for a moment — an attempt to falsify the fact of knowledge, to try to turn the knowledge into the goal.
A belief is like a guillotine, just as heavy, just as light.
Two possibilities: making oneself infinitely small or being so. The second is perfection, that is to say, inactivity, the first is beginning, that is to say, action.
Towards the avoidance of a piece of verbal confusion: What is intended to be actively destroyed must first of all have what crumbles away crumbles away, but cannot be destroyed.
The first worship of idols was certainly fear of the things in the world, but, connected with this, fear of the necessity of the things, and, connected with this, fear of responsibility for the things. So tremendous did this responsibility appear that people did not even dare to impose it upon one single extra-human entity, for even the mediation of one being would not have sufficiently lightened human responsibility, intercourse with only one being would still have been all too deeply tainted with responsibility, and that is why each things was given the responsibility for itself, more indeed, these things were also given a degree of responsibility for man.
There can be knowledge of the diabolical, but no belief in it, for more of the diabolical than there is does not exist.
We too must suffer all the suffering around us. We all have not one body, but we have one way of growing, and this leads us through all anguish, whether in this or in that form. Just as the child develops through all the stages of life right into old age and to death (and fundamentally to the earlier stage the later one seems out of reach, in relation both to desire and to fear), so also do we develop (no less deeply bound up with mankind than with ourselves) through all the sufferings of this world. There is no room for justice in this context, but neither is there any room either for fear of suffering or for the interpretation of suffering as a merit.
Du kannst Dich zurückhalten von den Leiden der Welt, das ist Dir freigestellt und entspricht Deiner Natur, aber vielleicht ist gerade dieses Zurückhalten das einzige Leid, das Du vermeiden k?nntest.
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.
Humility provides everyone, even him who despairs in solitude, with the strongest relationship to his fellow man, and this immediately, though, of course, only in the case of complete and permanent humility. It can do this because it is the true language of prayer, at once adoration and the firmest of unions. The relationship to one’s fellow man is the relationship of prayer, the relationship to oneself is the rela it is from prayer that one draws the strength for one’s striving.
"It cannot be said that we are lacking in faith. Even the simple fact of our life is of a faith-value that can never be exhausted.” “You suggest there is some faith-value in this? One cannot not-live, after all.” “It is precisely in this ‘Cannot, after all’ that the mad st it is in this negation that it takes on form.”
There is no need for you to leave the house. Stay at your table and listen. Don’t even listen, just wait. Don’t even wait, be completely quiet and alone. The world will offer itself t it can’ in raptures it will writhe before you.
Variant translations: 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.
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.
You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait. Do not even 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.
Published as Der Prozess (1925);
Someone must have been telling lies about Joseph K., for without having done anything wrong he was arrested one fine morning. His landlady's cook, who always brought him his breakfast at eight o'clock, failed to appear on this occasion. That had never happened before.
First lines, Ch. 1
Variant translation: Somebody must have slandered Joseph K., for without having done anything wrong he was arrested one fine morning.
This question of yours, Sir, about my being a house painter — or rather, not a question, you simply made a statement — is typical of the whole character of this trial that is being foisted on me. You may object that it i you are quite right, for it is only a trial if I recognize it as such. But for the moment I do recognize it, on grounds of compassion, as it were. One can't regard it except with compassion, if one is to regard it at all. I do not say that your procedure is contemptible, but I should like to present that epithet to you for your private consumption.
Josef K. in Ch. 2
Variant translation: Your question, Mr. Examining Magistrate, as to whether I am a house-painter — although you did not ask a question at all, you made a statement — typifies exactly the kind of proceedings that are being instituted against me.
The right understanding of any matter and a misunderstanding of the same matter do not wholly exclude each other.
What an obstacle had suddenly arisen to block K.'s career! And this was the moment when he was supposed to work for the bank? He looked down at his desk. This the time to interview clients and negotiate with them? While his case was unfolding itself, while up in the attics the Court officials were poring over the charge papers, was he to devote his attention to the affairs of the bank? It looked like a kind of torture sanctioned by the Court, arising from his case and concomitant with it.
Even it is often better to be in chains than to be free.
Logic may indeed be unshakeable, but it cannot withstand a man who is determined to live. Where was the judge he had never seen? Where was the High Court he had never reached? He raised his hands and spread out all his fingers. But the hands of one of the men closed round his throat, just as the other drove the knife deep into his heart and turned it twice.
"Like a dog!" he said, it was as if the shame of it should outlive him.
Ch. 10, end of the book
I dream of a grave, deep and narrow, where we could clasp each other in our arms as with clamps, and I would hide my face in you and you would hide your face in me, and nobody would ever see us any more
One must fight to get to the top, especially if one starts at the bottom.
There's no quiet place here on earth for our love, not in the village and not anywhere else, so I picture a grave, deep and narrow, in which we embrace as if clamped together, I bury my face against you, you yours against me, and no one will ever see us.
If a man has his eyes bound, you can encourage him as much as you like to stare through the bandage, but he'll never see anything
Many statements from this work are in the earlier section "Aphorisms" (1918)
The whole visible world is perhaps nothing more than than the rationalization of a man who wants to find peace for a moment. An attempt to falsify the actuality of knowledge, to regard knowledge as a goal still to be reached.
"Paradise".
will come only when he is no longer necessary; he will come only on the d he will come, not on the last day, but on the very last day.
Variant translation: The Messiah will come only when he is he will come only on the d he will come, not on the last day, but at the very last.
Edited by Max Brod
I can prove at any time that my education tried to make another person out of me than the one I became. It is for the harm, therefore, that my educators could have done me in accordance with their intentions that I I demand from their hands the person I now am, and since they cannot give him to me, I make of my reproach and laughter a drumbeat sounding in the world beyond.
(July 1910).
"Don't you want to join us?" I was recently asked by an acquaintance when he ran across me alone after midnight in a coffeehouse that was already almost deserted. "No, I don't," I said.
(June 1914).
Life's splendor forever lies in wait about each one of us in all its fullness, but veiled from view, deep down, invisible, far off. It is there, though, not hostile, not reluctant, not deaf. If you summon it by the right word, by its right name, it will come.
(18 October 1921).
The history of mankind is the instant between two strides taken by a traveler.
The thornbush is old obstacle in the road. It must catch fire if you want to go further.
There was once a community of scoundrels, that is to say, they were not scoundrels, but ordinary people.
Anyone who believes cannot experience miracles. By day one does not see any stars. Anyone who does miracles says: I cannot let go of the earth.
21 November 1917
Variant translation: Anyone who believes cannot experience miracles. By day one cannot see any stars.
Religions get lost as people do.
Idleness is the beginning of all vice, the crown of all virtues.
Das B?se weiss vom Guten, aber das Gute vom B?sen nicht. Selbsterkenntnis hat nur das B?se. - ; published by BookRix, 9-8-2014.
Translation: Evil knows of the Good, but Good does not know of Evil. Knowledge of oneself is something only Evil has. -
Quotes from Franz Kafka: A Biography (1960) by Max Brod (expanding on earlier editions of 1937 and 1947), as translated by G. Humphreys Roberts and Richard Winston
Now at last I can look at you in peace, I don't eat you anymore.
What is meant by its nature for the highest and the best, spreads among the lowly people.
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.
"On Parables", translation by Willa and Edwin Muir.
"Everything you say is boring and incomprehensible," she said, "but that alone doesn't make it true."
"Oh well, memories,” said I. “Yes, even remembering in itself is sad, yet how much more its object! Don’t let yourself in for things like that, it’s not for you and it’s not for me. It only weakens one’s present position without strengthening the former one—nothing is more obvious—quite apart from the fact that the former one doesn’t need strengthening."
"Description of a Struggle".
How much my life has changed, and yet how unchanged it has remained at bottom! When I think back and recall the time when I was still a member of the canine community, sharing in all its preoccupations, a dog among dogs, I find on closer examination that from the very beginning I sensed some discrepancy, some little maladjustment, causing a slight feeling of discomfort which not even the most decorous public funct more, that sometimes, no, not sometimes, but very often, the mere look of some fellow dog of my own circle that I was fond of, the mere look of him, as if I had just caught it for the first time, would fill me with helpless embarrassment and fear, even with despair.
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!
"Investigations of a Dog".
Ours is a lost generation, it may be, but it is more blameless than those earlier generations.
"Investigations of a Dog".
So long as you have food in your mouth, you have solved all questions for the time being.
"Investigations of a Dog".
"You asking me the way?" "Yes," I said, "since I can't find it myself." "Give it up! Give it up!" said he, and turned with a sudden jerk, like someone who wants to be alone with his laughter.
Variant translation: The Policeman said to me, "You want to know the way? Give up! Just give up!" And he turned away like a man that wants to be alone with his laughter.
By believing passionately in something which still does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired.
Attributed to Kafka in Ambiguous Spaces (2008) by NaJa & deOstos (Nannette Jackowski and Ricardo de Ostos), p. 7, and a couple other publications since, this is actually from Report to Greco (1965) by , p. 434
The only way Kafka could envisage of creating his in every respect impossible writing possible was to demarcate the area of impossibility by making a language without a particular color, without a local tone, without qualities, as it were.
Marthe Robert, As Lonely as Kafka (1953).
He is interested in the feelings of the squash ball, and of the champagne bottle that launches the ship. In a football match his sympathy is not with either of the teams but with the ball, or, in a match ending nil-nil, with the hunger of the goalmouth.
Alan Bennett Writing Home p. 336.
Kafka described with wonderful imaginative power the future concentration camps, the future instability of the law, the future absolutism of the state Apparat.
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