A Report for an Academy Quotes

“And so I learned things, gentlemen. Ah, one learns when one has to; one learns when one needs a way out; one learns at all costs. One stands over oneself with a whip; one flays oneself at the slightest opposition. My ape nature fled out of me, head over heels and away, so that my first teacher was almost himself turned into an ape by it and was taken away to a mental hospital. Fortunately he was soon let out again.
But I used up many teachers, several teachers at once. As I became more confident of my abilities, as the public took and interest in my progress and my future began to look bright, I engaged teachers for myself, engaged them in five communicating rooms, and took lessons from all at once by dint of leaping from one room to the other.
That progress of mine! How the rays of knowledge penetrated from all sides into my awakening brain? I do not deny it: I found it exhilarating. But I must also confess: I did not overestimate it, not even then, much less now. With an effort which up till now has never been repeated I managed to reach the cultural level of an average European. In itself that might be nothing to speak of, but it is something insofar as it has helped me out of my cage and opened a special way out for me, the way of humanity. There is an excellent idiom: to fight one’s way through the thick of things; that is what I have done, I have fought through the thick of things. There was nothing else for me to do, provided that freedom was not to be my choice.
As I look back on my development and survey what I have achieved so far, I do not complain, but I am not complacent either. With my hands in my trouser pockets, my bottle of wine on the table, I half lie and half sit in my rocking chair and gaze out of the window: If a visitor arrives I receive him with propriety. My manager sits in the anteroom; when I ring, he comes and listens to what I have to say. Nearly every evening I give a performance, and I have a success that could hardly be increased. When I come home late at night from banquets, from scientific receptions, from social gatherings, there sits waiting for me a half-trained chimpanzee and I take comfort from her as apes do. By day I cannot bear to see her; for she has the insane look of the bewildered half-broken animal in her eye, no one else sees it, but I do, and I cannot bear it. On the whole, at any rate, I have achieved what I have set out to achieve. But do not tell me that it was not worth the trouble. In any case, I am not appealing to any man’s verdict. I am only imparting knowledge, I am only making a report. To you also, honored Members of the Academy, I have only made a report.”
― Franz Kafka, A Report for an Academy

“Sometimes I'm overcome with such an aversion to human beings that I can barely refrain from retching.”
― Franz Kafka, A Report for an Academy

“Ah, one learns when one has to; one learns when one needs a way out; one learns at all costs. One stands over oneself with a whip; one flays oneself at the slightest opposition.”
― Franz Kafka, A Report for an Academy

“No, freedom was not what I wanted. Only a way out; right or left, or in any direction; I made no other demand; even should the way out prove to be an illusion; the demand was a small one, the disappointment could be no bigger. To get out somewhere, to get out! Only not to stay motionless with raised arms, crushed against a wooden wall.”
― Franz Kafka, A Report for an Academy

“Und ich lernte meine Herren. Ach, man lernt, wenn man muß; man lernt, wenn man einen Ausweg will; man lernt rücksichtslos.”
― Franz Kafka, A Report for an Academy

“No, freedom was not what I wanted. Only a way out; right or left, or in any direction; I made no other demand; even should the way out prove to be an illusion; the demand was a small one, the disappointment could be no bigger.”
― Franz Kafka, A Report for an Academy

“And that too is human freedom," I thought, "self-controlled movement." What a mockery of holy Mother Nature! Were the apes to see such a spectacle, no theater walls could stand the shock of their laughter.”
― Franz Kafka, A Report for an Academy

“Promises are not made on seemingly impossible conditions. But if one satisfies the conditions, then the promises appear, as it were retrospectively, and in exactly where one had earlier looked for them in vain.”
― Franz Kafka, A Report for an Academy

“Era atât de ușor să-i imiți pe oameni. Încă din primele zile puteam să scuip. Apoi ne-am scuipat în față reciproc; deosebirea era doar că după aceea eu îmi lingeam chipul, iar ei nu. Când fumam din lulea ca un bătrân, dacă mai și îndopam cu degetul tutunul în pipă, întreaga punte intermediară răsuna de chiote; doar deosebirea dintre pipa goală și cea umplută n-am înțeles-o multă vreme.”
― Franz Kafka, A Report for an Academy

“Hasta entonces habia tenido un sinfín de salidas, ya no me quedaba ninguna. Estaba encallado. Si me hubieran clavado, no hubiera disminuido por ello mi libertad de acción. ¿Por qué? Aunque te rasques hasta hacer sangrar el pellejo entre los dedos de los pies, no encontrarás respuesta. Aunque te aprietes la espalda contra los barrotes de la jaula hasta que casi se parta en dos, no encontrarás respuesta. No tenía salida , pero tenía que encontrar una: sin ella no podia vivir. Siempre contra esa pared, hubiera acabado reventando. Pero como en el circo Hagenbeck a los monos les toca estar encajonados, pues bien, dejé de ser mono. Fue una asociación de ideas clara y hermosa que debió, en cierto modo, ocurrírseme en la barriga, ya que los monos piensan con la barriga.”
― Franz Kafka, Informe para una Academia