Some deny the existence of misery by pointing to the sun; he denies the existence of the sun by pointing to misery.
Franz KafkaRead
If it had been possible to build the Tower of Babel without climbing it, it would have been permitted.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the challenges and necessity of effort in achieving great things.
Franz Kafka's quote suggests that the achievement of monumental tasks often requires a struggle and a journey, akin to climbing the Tower of Babel. It implies that if success could be achieved without effort or facing challenges, it would have been encouraged; however, the reality is that true accomplishments are often fraught with difficulties and require perseverance.
In practice
This quote can be shared during a motivational workshop to emphasize the importance of hard work.
Some deny the existence of misery by pointing to the sun; he denies the existence of the sun by pointing to misery.
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.
But Gregor understood easily that it was not only consideration for him which prevented their moving, for he could easily have been transported in a suitable crate with a few air holes; what mainly prevented the family from moving was their complete hopelessness and the thought that they had been struck by a misfortune as none of their relatives and acquaintances had ever been hit.
Association with human beings lures one into self-observation.
A non-writing writer is a monster courting insanity.
The ulterior motives with which you absorb and assimilate Evil are not your own but those of Evil. _x000D_ 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.
Rivers and mountains are beautiful and made heroes bow and compete to catch the girl- lovely earth. Yet the emperors Shih Huang and Wu Ti were barely able to write. The first emperors of the Tang and Sung dynasties were crude. Genghis Khan, man of his epoch and favored by heaven, knew only how to hunt the great eagle. They are all gone. Only today are we men of feeling.
There is no freedom that I would grant to any man that I would refuse to woman, and there is no freedom that I would refuse to either man or woman except the freedom to invade ... whoever has the ballot has the freedom to invade, and whoever wants the ballot wants the freedom to invade. Give woman equality with man, by all means; but do it by taking power from man, not giving it to woman.
Fantasy flows in where fact leaves a vacuum.
The United Nations, whose membership comprises almost all the states in the world, is founded on the principle of the equal worth of every human being.
What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning.
Meaning is a shaky edifice we build out of scraps, dogmas, childhood injuries, newspaper articles, chance remarks, old fillms, small victories, people hated, people loved; perhaps it is because our sense of what is the case is constructed from such inadequate materials that we defend it so fiercely, even to death.
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