As far as I have seen, at school...they aimed at blotting out one's individuality.

Adam's first domestic pet after the expulsion from Paradise was the serpent.

My grandfather used to say: Life is astoundingly short. To me, looking back over it, life seems so foreshortened that I scarcely understand, for instance, how a young man can decide to ride over to the next village without being afraid that -not to mention accidents- even the span of a normal happy life may fall far short of the time needed for such a journey.

A man of action forced into a state of thought is unhappy until he can get out of it.

Palestine needs earth, but it does not need lawyers.

If this is what you came for, then I didn't send for you. Kafka (note to himself in journal)

Anyone who cannot come to terms with his life while he is alive needs one hand to ward off a little his despair over his fate... but with his other hand he can note down what he sees among the ruins.