Tai > Tai's Quotes

“One must lie low, no matter how much it went against the grain, and try to understand that this great organization remained, so to speak, in a state of delicate balance, and that if someone took it upon himself to alter the dispositions of things around him, he ran the risk of losing his footing and falling to destruction, while the organization would simply right itself by some compensating reaction in another part of its machinery – since everything interlocked – and remain unchanged, unless, indeed, which was very probable, it became still more rigid, more vigilant, severer, and more ruthless.”
― Franz Kafka, The Trial

“It would have been so pointless to kill himself that, even if he had wanted to, the pointlessness would have made him unable.”
― Franz Kafka, The Trial

“it is not necessary to accept everything as true, one must only accept it as necessary.' 'A melancholy conclusion,' said K. 'It turns lying into a universal principle.”
― Franz Kafka, The Trial

“They're talking about things of which they don't have the slightest understanding, anyway. It's only because of their stupidity that they're able to be so sure of themselves.”
― Franz Kafka, The Trial

“The right understanding of any matter and a misunderstanding of the same matter do not wholly exclude each other.”
― Franz Kafka, The Trial

“Like a Dog!”
― Franz Kafka, The Trial

“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, The Trial

“The books we need are of the kind that act upon us like a misfortune, that makes us suffer like the death of someone we love more than ourselves, that make us feel as though we were on the verge of suicide, lost in a forest remote from all human habitation.”
― Franz Kafka, The Trial

“Like a dog!" he said, it was as if the shame of it should outlive him.”
― Franz Kafka, The Trial

“His fair landlady was in despair. She would most willingly have made M. d'Artagnan her husband--such a handsome man, and such a fierce mustache!”
― Alexandre Dumas, Twenty Years After

“When you are in doubt as to which you should serve forsake the material appearance for the invisible principle for this is everything.”
― Alexandre Dumas, Twenty Years After

“I will follow him to hell, and that is saying not a little, as I believe him entirely capable of the descent.”
― Alexandre Dumas, Twenty Years After

“Friendship throws out deep roots in honest hearts, D'Artagnan. Believe me, it is only the evil-minded who deny friendship; they cannot understand it.”
― Alexandre Dumas, Twenty Years After

“Now an enemy is never so near and consequently so threatening, as when he has completely disappeared.”
― Alexandre Dumas, Twenty Years After

“Follow me. He who lives will see. - D'Artagnan”
― Alexandre Dumas, Twenty Years After

“My lord,” said D’Artagnan, “Monsieur de Vallon [Porthos] is like me, he prefers service extraordinary—that is to say, enterprises that are considered mad and impossible.”
― Alexandre Dumas, Twenty Years After

“The plan is not wanting in grandeur; I see but one impediment.”

“What is it?”

“Impossibility.”
― Alexandre Dumas, Twenty Years After

“[I]f you happen to have any money, lock it up quickly; if you happen to have any jewels, hide them directly; if you happen to have any debtors, make them pay you, or any creditors, don’t pay them.”
― Alexandre Dumas, Twenty Years After

“Flying through an army, sire,” said Athos, “in all countries in the world is called charging.”
― Alexandre Dumas, Twenty Years After

“As for Porthos, I believe him to be eternal, like God, although less patient.”
― Alexandre Dumas, Twenty Years After

“Sleep is a very capricious goddess, and it is precisely when she is invoked that she delays coming.
- Page 184”
― Alexandre Dumas, Twenty Years After

“One of the first signs of the beginning of understanding is the wish to die. This life appears unbearable, another unattainable. One is no longer ashamed of wanting to die; one asks to be moved from the old cell, which one hates, to a new one, which one willl only in time come to hate. In this there is also a residue of belief that during the move the master will chance to come along the corridor, look at the prisoner and say: "This man is not to be locked up again, He is to come with me.”
― Franz Kafka, The Blue Octavo Notebooks

“Art flies around truth, but with the definite intention of not getting burnt. Its capacity lies in finding in the dark void a place where the beam of light can be intensely caught, without this having been perceptible before.”
― Franz Kafka, The Blue Octavo Notebooks

“The man in ecstasy and the man drowning—both throw up their arms.”
― Franz Kafka, The Blue Octavo Notebooks

“When the little mouse, which was loved as none other was in the mouse-world, got into a trap one night and with a shrill scream forfeited its life for the sight of the bacon, all the mice in the district, in their holes were overcome by trembling and shaking; with eyes blinking uncontrollably they gazed at each other one by one, while their tails scraped the ground busily and senselessly. Then they came out, hesitantly, pushing one another, all drawn towards the scene of death. There it lay, the dear little mouse, its neck caught in the deadly iron, the little pink legs drawn up, and now stiff the feeble body that would so well have deserved a scrap of bacon.
The parents stood beside it and eyed their child's remains.”
― Franz Kafka, The Blue Octavo Notebooks

“Idleness is the beginning of all vice, the crown of all virtues.”
― Franz Kafka, The Blue Octavo Notebooks

“The main thing, when a sword cuts into one’s soul, is to keep a calm gaze, lose no blood, accept the coldness of the sword with the coldness of a stone. By means of the stab, after the stab, become invulnerable.”
― Franz Kafka, The Blue Octavo Notebooks

“It's only because of their stupidity that they're able to be so sure of themselves.”
― Franz Kafka, The Trial

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

“Logic may indeed be unshakeable, but it cannot withstand a man who is determined to live.”
― Franz Kafka, The Trial