"We met a large group of workmen who were marching with flags and banners to a meeting. Kafka said, "These people are so self-possessed, so self-confident and good humoured. They rule the streets, and therefore think they rule the world. In fact, they are mistaken. Behind them already are the secretaries, officials, professional politicians, all the modern satraps for whom they are preparing the way to power." "You do not believe in the power of the masses?" "It is before my eyes, this power of the masses, formless and apparently chaotic, which then seeks to be given a form and a discipline. At the end of every truly revolutionary development there appears a Napoleon Bonaparte." "You don"t believe in a wider expansion of the Russian Revolution?" Kafka was silent for a moment, then he said: "As a flood spreads wider and wider, the water becomes shallower and dirtier. The Revolution evaporates, and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy. The chains of tormented mankind are made out of red tape.""
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Franz Kafka
1883 – 1924
deutschsprachiger Schriftsteller
148 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Franz Kafka →
Related Quotes
"Kafka's Jewishness was a kind of dream, whose authentic moment was located always in the nostalgic past. His survey o…"
"The impersonality of the communist state is not easy to understand. The huge dangers with which its subjects are dail…"
"The work of Kafka … has been subjected to a mass ravishment by no less than three armies of interpreters. Those who r…"
"Kafka is enormously important. Years ago I wrote a Jewish travel guide to Prague and other cities in the region. At t…"
"Now the Sirens have a still more fatal weapon than their song, namely their silence... Someone might possibly have es…"
"Plenty of hope — for God — no end of hope — only not for us."
"How about if I sleep a little bit longer and forget all this nonsense."
"Verlassen sind wir doch wie verirrte Kinder im Walde. Wenn Du vor mir stehst und mich ansiehst, was weißt Du von den …"
"Ich glaube, man sollte überhaupt nur solche Bücher lesen, die einen beißen und stechen. Wenn das Buch, das wir lesen,…"
"Als Gregor Samsa eines Morgens aus unruhigen Träumen erwachte, fand er sich in seinem Bett zu einem ungeheuren Ungezi…"