Big Books of 2026

Derek > Derek's Quotes

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  • #1
    Franz Kafka
    “Youth is happy because it has the capacity to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.”
    ― Franz Kafka
    tags: beauty, wonder, young-at-heart, youth, youthfulness
    4046 likes

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  • #2
    Franz Kafka
    “By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired.”
    ― Franz Kafka
    1376 likes

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  • #3
    Franz Kafka
    “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.”
    ― Franz Kafka
    tags: honesty, truth-telling, writing
    5100 likes

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  • #4
    Franz Kafka
    “I never wish to be easily defined. I’d rather float over other people’s minds as something strictly fluid and non-perceivable; more like a transparent, paradoxically iridescent creature rather than an actual person.”
    ― Franz Kafka
    1134 likes

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  • #5
    Franz Kafka
    “Most men are not wicked... They are sleep-walkers, not evil evildoers.”
    ― Franz Kafka
    tags: humour, philosophical, satire
    385 likes

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  • #6
    Franz Kafka
    “I was ashamed of myself when I realised life was a costume party and I attended with my real face”
    ― Franz Kafka
    648 likes

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  • #7
    Franz Kafka
    “From a certain point onward there is no longer any turning back. That is the point that must be reached.”
    ― Franz Kafka, The Trial
    361 likes

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  • #8
    Franz Kafka
    “I am not well; I could have built the Pyramids with the effort it takes me to cling on to life and reason.”
    ― Franz Kafka, Letters to Felice
    437 likes

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  • #9
    Franz Kafka
    “Evil is whatever distracts.”
    ― Franz Kafka
    197 likes

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  • #10
    Franz Kafka
    “One has either to take people as they are, or leave them as they are. One cannot change them, one can merely disturb their balance. A human being, after all, is not made up of single pieces, from which a single piece can be taken out and replaced by something else.”
    ― Franz Kafka, Letters to Felice
    121 likes

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  • #11
    G.K. Chesterton
    “The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.”
    ― G.K. Chesterton
    5118 likes

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  • #12
    G.K. Chesterton
    “I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.”
    ― G.K. Chesterton
    tags: inspirational-humor
    1380 likes

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  • #13
    G.K. Chesterton
    “To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless.”
    ― G.K. Chesterton
    tags: faith, forgiveness, hope, inspirational, love
    1308 likes

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  • #14
    G.K. Chesterton
    “A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.”
    ― G.K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man
    tags: inspirational
    561 likes

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  • #15
    G.K. Chesterton
    “How you think when you lose determines how long it will be until you win.”
    ― G.K. Chesterton
    477 likes

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  • #16
    G.K. Chesterton
    “We men and women are all in the same boat, upon a stormy sea. We owe to each other a terrible and tragic loyalty.”
    ― G.K. Chesterton, The Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton Volume 28: The Illustrated London News, 1908-1910
    tags: brotherhood-of-man, interdependence, loyalty
    464 likes

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  • #17
    G.K. Chesterton
    “Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about.”
    ― G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy
    tags: catholic, politics, religion, tradition
    488 likes

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  • #18
    G.K. Chesterton
    “There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds.”
    ― G.K. Chesterton
    tags: imagination
    412 likes

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  • #19
    G.K. Chesterton
    “Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die.”
    ― G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy
    414 likes

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  • #20
    G.K. Chesterton
    “We fear men so much, because we fear God so little. One fear cures another. When man's terror scares you, turn your thoughts to the wrath of God.”
    ― G.K. Chesterton
    tags: fear, god
    409 likes

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  • #21
    G.K. Chesterton
    “Love means to love that which is unlovable; or it is no virtue at all.”
    ― G.K. Chesterton
    375 likes

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  • #22
    G.K. Chesterton
    “I wish we could sometimes love the characters in real life as we love the characters in romances. There are a great many human souls whom we should accept more kindly, and even appreciate more clearly, if we simply thought of them as people in a story.”
    ― G.K. Chesterton, What I Saw in America
    tags: books, characters, life
    372 likes

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  • #23
    G.K. Chesterton
    “If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.”
    ― G.K. Chesterton
    tags: philosophy
    377 likes

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  • #24
    G.K. Chesterton
    “Music with dinner is an insult both to the cook and the violinist.”
    ― G. K. Chesterton
    tags: food, music
    332 likes

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  • #25
    G.K. Chesterton
    “Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.”
    ― G.K. Chesterton
    342 likes

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  • #26
    G.K. Chesterton
    “The criminal is the creative artist; the detective only the critic.”
    ― G.K. Chesterton, The Blue Cross: A Father Brown Mystery
    tags: art, creativity, crime, critic, criticism, detectives, mystery
    237 likes

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  • #27
    G.K. Chesterton
    “In prosperity, our friends know us. In adversity, we know our friends”
    ― G.K. Chesterton
    tags: real-life
    232 likes

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  • #28
    G.K. Chesterton
    “Hope is the power of being cheerful in circumstances that we know to be desperate.”
    ― G.K. Chesterton
    tags: cheerful, circumstances, desperate, hope
    235 likes

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  • #29
    G.K. Chesterton
    “Do not free a camel of the burden of his hump; you may be freeing him from being a camel.”
    ― G.K. Chesterton
    tags: duty, identity, responsibility, uniqueness
    236 likes

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  • #30
    G.K. Chesterton
    “The men who really believe in themselves are all in lunatic asylums.”
    ― G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy
    171 likes



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Tags From Derek’s Quotes

beauty
wonder
young-at-heart
youth
youthfulness
honesty
truth-telling
writing
humour
philosophical
satire
inspirational-humor
faith
forgiveness
hope
inspirational
love
brotherhood-of-man
interdependence
loyalty
catholic
politics
religion
tradition
imagination
fear
god
books
characters
life
philosophy
food
music
art
creativity
crime
critic
criticism
detectives
mystery
real-life
cheerful
circumstances
desperate
duty
identity
responsibility
uniqueness