Franz Kafka Quotes

The more conscious I was of goodness and of all that was 'sublime and beautiful,'the more deeply I sank into my mire and the more ready I was to sink in it altogether.

As long as dishonorable success outranks honest effort—as long as society bows and cringes before the great thieves, there will be little ones enough to fill the jails.

There are some acts of justice which corrupt those who perform them.

The corrupt are running out of places to hide.

In an age that is utterly corrupt, the best policy is to do as others do.

Any man who tries to be good all the time is bound to come to ruin among the great number who are not good.

In youth, in middle age, and now after many battles, I find nothing in me but corruption.

As Angelo discovered in Measure for Measure, nothing corrupts like virtue.

We said that a single injustice, a single crime, a single illegality, particularly if it is officially recorded, confirmed, a single wrong to humanity, a single wrong to justice and to right, particularly if it is universally, legally, nationally, commodiously accepted, that a single crime shatters and is sufficient to shatter the whole social pact, the whole social contract, that a single legal crime, a single dishonorable act will bring about the loss of ones honor, the dishonor of a whole people. It is a touch of gangrene that corrupts the entire body.

Goodness that comes out of hiding and assumes a public role is no longer good, but corrupt in its own terms and will carry its own corruption wherever it goes.

The spirits, they intoxicate me. I watched them infiltrate my soul. They try to say it's too late for me. Once I was promised absolution, there's only one solution for my sins. And I blame this world, for making a good man evil. Now I ain't getting into heaven, if the devil has his way.

Humans live in a pit of cheating, exploiting, hurting, incarcerating. Every time, the species wastes some part of what it could be. This waste is poisonous.

At the risk of repetition let me say again that my plea is not for immunity to, but for the most unsparing exposure of, the politician who betrays his trust, of the big business man who makes or spends his fortune in illegitimate or corrupt ways. There should be a resolute effort to hunt every such man out of the position he has disgraced. Expose the crime, and hunt down the criminal; but remember that even in the case of crime, if it is attacked in sensational, lurid, and untruthful fashion, the attack may do more damage to the public mind than the crime itself.

The corruption of man is followed by the corruption of language.

People who live in an age of corruption are witty and slanderous; they know that there are other kinds of murder than by dagger or assault; they also know that whatever is well said is believed.

If you had enough money, you could hardly commit crimes at all. You just perpetrated amusing little peccadilloes.

They say that patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings steal a little and they throw you in jail. Steal a lot and then they make you king.

They used to take your horse and if they were caught they got hung for it. Now they take your car, and if they are caught it's a miracle.

It induced us to conduct government according to lies. It distorted justice. It undermined American morality.

What has this unfeeling age of ours left untried, what wickedness has it shunned?

It's very hard to be good. It is self-destructive thinking to think that there is too much good.

Because we have sought to cover up past evil, though it still persists, we have been powerless to check the new evil of today.Evil unchecked grows, Evil tolerated poisons the whole system. And because we have tolerated our past and present evils, international affairs are poisoned and law and justice have disappeared from them.

Goodness," Myrnin said quietly. "I don't think I should be watching this. I don't think I'm old enough.

What is the chief end of man?-to get rich. In what way?-dishonestly if we can; honestly if we must. Who is God, the one and only true? Money is God. Gold and Greenbacks and Stock-father, son, and ghosts of same, three persons in one; These are the true and only God, mighty and supreme.

Were the life of man prolonged, he would become such a proficient in villainy, that it would become necessary again to drown or to burn the world. Earth would become an hell; for future rewards when put off to a great distance, would cease to encourage, and future punishments to alarm.