The Trial

by Franz Kafka

It's only because of their stupidity that they're able to be so sure of themselves.

How are we to avoid those in office becoming deeply corrupt when everything is devoid of meaning?

But K. should not forget that the trial would not be public, if the court deems it necessary it can be made public but there is no law that says it has to be. As a result, the accused and his defence don't have access even to the court records, and especially not to the indictment, and that means we generally don't know - or at least not precisely - what the first documents need to be about, which means that if they do contain anything of relevance to the case it's only by a lucky coincidence. If anything about the individual charges and the reasons for them

here. This is because proceedings are generally kept secret not only from the public but also from the accused.

"No," said the priest, "you don't need to accept everything as true, you only have to accept it as necessary." "Depressing view," said K. "The lie made into the rule of the world."