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Franz Kafka Quotes about Evil

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Evil is whatever distracts.

Evil is whatever distracts.

Franz Kafka
Evil, Literature, Madness
Franz Kafka (1991). “The Blue Octavo Notebooks”

Evil is the starry sky of the Good.

Franz Kafka
Sky, Evil, Starry Sky
Franz Kafka (1991). “The Blue Octavo Notebooks”

When one has once accepted and absorbed Evil, it no longer demands to be believed.

Franz Kafka
Evil, Demand, Accepted
Franz Kafka (1991). “The Blue Octavo Notebooks”

There is nothing besides a spiritual world; 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.

Franz Kafka
Spiritual, Evil, World
Franz Kafka (1954). “Wedding preparations in the country: and other posthumous prose writings. With notes by Max Brod”

When one has once accepted and absorbed Evil, it no longer demands the unfitness of the means. The ulterior motives with which youabsorb and assimilate Evil are not your own but those of Evil.... Evil is whatever distracts. Evil knows of the Good, but Good does not know of Evil. Knowledge of oneself is something only Evil has. One means that Evil has is the dialogue.... One cannot pay Evil in installments--and one always keeps on trying to.

Franz Kafka
Mean, Evil, Trying

The mediation by the serpent was necessary. Evil can seduce man, but cannot become man.

Franz Kafka
Men, Evil, Literature
Franz Kafka (1954). “Wedding preparations in the country: and other posthumous prose writings. With notes by Max Brod”

Everything is deception: seeking the minimum of illusion, keeping within the ordinary limitations, seeking the maximum. In the first case one cheats the Good, by trying to make it too easy for oneself to get it, and the Evil by imposing all too unfavorable conditions of warfare on it. In the second case one cheats the Good by keeping as aloof from it as possible, and the Evil by hoping to make it powerless through intensifying it to the utmost.

Franz Kafka
Evil, Deception, Trying
Franz Kafka (1954). “Wedding preparations in the country: and other posthumous prose writings. With notes by Max Brod”

The ulterior motives with which you absorb and assimilate Evil are not your own but those of Evil.

Franz Kafka
Evil, Whiplash, Motive
Franz Kafka (1991). “The Blue Octavo Notebooks”

In Paradise, as always: that which causes the sin and that which recognizes it for what it is are one. The clear conscience is Evil, which is so entirely victorious that it does not any longer consider the leap from left to right necessary.

Franz Kafka
Evil, Doe, Paradise
Franz Kafka (1991). “The Blue Octavo Notebooks”

Evil is the radiation of the human consciousness in certain transitional positions. It is not actually the sensual world that is amere appearance; what is so is the evil of it, which, admittedly, is what constitutes the sensual world in our eyes.

Franz Kafka
Eye, Evil, Sensual

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