The Trial Quotes
"Translating Kafka was once my dream. Now I only dream of how I might have done it better."
"Each new age demands its own versions of the literary past."
"You’re under arrest, that’s all. I was to inform you of that, I’ve done so, and I’ve noted your reaction."
"We could be wearing the most proper of uniforms and your case would not be a whit more serious."
"You’re under arrest, certainly, but that’s not meant to keep you from carrying on your profession."
"Think less about us and what’s going to happen to you, and instead think more about yourself."
"Everywhere the wall clock showed ten o'clock."
"The court has a strange attraction, doesn’t it?"
"I was looking for a carpenter, a man named Lanz?" - K.
"I may have arrived late, but I’m here now." - K.
"You should have appeared here an hour and five minutes ago." - The examining magistrate.
"Your question, Your Honor, about my being a house painter—and you weren’t really asking at all, you were telling me outright—is characteristic of the way these entire proceedings against me are being conducted." - K.
"I was assaulted in the morning in bed; perhaps they’d been ordered to arrest some house painter—that can’t be ruled out after what the examining magistrate has said—someone as innocent as I am, but they chose me." - K.
"No, no," K. replied, "it’s just a dog howling in the courtyard."
"I had to explain why you laughed." - Young woman to K.
"Do you think you’ll be able to improve things?" - Woman to K.
"Stop staring out the window, for heaven's sake, Josef, answer me."
"I can guess what you want," said K. submissively.
"But regarding Josef, there's something else I wanted to tell you."
"Your attitude doesn’t please me at all, that's not how an innocent man acts."
"The calmer I am, the better, as far as the outcome is concerned."
"You’ve always been our pride and joy, you mustn’t disgrace us now."
"Trials aren’t won by getting excited, let my practical experience count for something."
"But that doesn’t mean the trial has been lost, not by any means."
"But you’ve no doubt thought everything over carefully and know what to do."
"You want to hear how it turned out. Not too badly."
"I’m afraid I may perhaps be adding to your burdens today."
"So many people are connected with the court!"
"I always say: Chief Financial Officer K. is practically a lawyer."
"You mustn’t feel obliged to actually visit Titorelli just because I’m the one who advised you to do so."
"If this atelier weren’t provided for me free, I would have moved out long ago."
"I’m a merchant, and was much more of one then than I am today; I wanted to see tangible results; I expected the whole matter to be moving toward a conclusion."
"I once read an essay in which I found the difference between representing a normal case and representing one of this sort expressed quite beautifully."
"He practically lives with me in order to stay current. One doesn’t always find such commitment."
"What do you think he would say if he were to learn that his trial hasn’t even begun yet, if someone were to tell him that the bell that opens the trial still hasn’t rung."
"Block works hard on his trial and always tries to keep up with it."
"Block is simply cunning. He’s gained a good deal of experience and knows how to protract a trial."
"It’s senseless anxiety! You’ve read somewhere that in some cases the final judgment comes unexpectedly from some chance person at some random moment."
"Logic is no doubt unshakable, but it cannot withstand a person who wants to live."
"It's often more convenient to be in chains than to be free."
"The right understanding of any matter and a misunderstanding of the same matter do not wholly exclude each other."
"Anyone who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eyes are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light."
"One must lie low, no matter how much it went against the grain, and try to understand that this great organization remained, so to speak, in a state of delicate balance, and that one could not trifle with it."
"In the fight between you and the world, back the world."
"A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us."
"It is not necessary to accept everything as true, one must only accept it as necessary."
"Start with what is right rather than what is acceptable."
"In general he still was quite discerning and was careful not to overlook or skip over any difficulty."
"He forgot then the magnitude of the court’s tasks, it seemed to him as if he were the only defendant."
"Because so many of them were strangers he felt uncomfortable regarding the group more closely."
"He knew all the patterns of the lace, all the frayed fringes, every swing of the little jacket, and still he hadn’t seen enough."
"He was going out of mere sentimentality? And out of sentimentality possibly neglecting some important matter here?"
"His mother’s vision was failing, to be sure, but K. had been expecting that for years after what the doctors had said."
"To make up for it, he wouldn’t wait until his birthday, although it was just two weeks away, but would go at once."
"He stepped to the window to gather his thoughts, then had his meal cleared away at once."
"Diary entry, August 2: "Germany has declared war on Russia—swimming club in the afternoon.""