Franz Kafka quotes
1883 – 1924 · Prague, 19th–20th century · German‑language novelist and short‑story writer
About Franz Kafka
Born in Prague on 3 July 1883, Kafka earned a law doctorate in 1906 and worked for the Workers’ Accident Insurance Institute while writing in his spare time. Diagnosed with tuberculosis, he died 3 June 1924 in Kierling. Many of his novels and notebooks were published posthumously by Max Brod.
Works: Notable titles: Betrachtung (1912), The Metamorphosis (1915), The Trial (posth. 1925)
Quotes
“A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us.”
Source: Letter to Oskar Pollak, 27 January 1904 · Check the source
Verified attributionWhat we know
- What is documented
- The sentence appears in Kafka’s letter to Oskar Pollak dated 27 January 1904.
Kafka’s image casts reading as violent awakening: books should shatter the inner numbness that keeps us safe but inert. He means literature ought to provoke, wound, and force reassessment rather than merely comfort. The sentence appears in a 1904 letter to Oskar Pollak.