If there’s one writer who understood life in all its drudgery and melancholy, it’s Franz Kafka. Alienated, estranged and outcast, his world was a microcosm of everyday existence. Today, there’s no better term to describe the oppressive and rigid institutional structures we live in as ‘kafkaesque’. The common man goes on living his life as a series of practiced tasks done over and over again – the futility of it hitting him only in moments of extreme desperation and boredom. But there’s no end to it because so strong are the structures, we trick ourselves into ‘choosing’ them out of free will. 

We picked out a few quotes by Kafka that are even more relevant in today’s shallow world. After all, life is but an illusion you’ve to keep in order to survive it. 

© Thinkstock/Getty Images, MensXP

© Thinkstock/Getty Images, MensXP

© Thinkstock/Getty Images, MensXP

© Thinkstock/Getty Images, MensXP

© Thinkstock/Getty Images, MensXP

© Thinkstock/Getty Images, MensXP

© Thinkstock/Getty Images, MensXP

© Thinkstock/Getty Images, MensXP

© Thinkstock/Getty Images, MensXP

© Thinkstock/Getty Images, MensXP

© Thinkstock/Getty Images, MensXP

© Thinkstock/Getty Images, MensXP