Contemplation

Also known as Meditation

Betrachtung is a collection of eighteen short stories by Franz Kafka written between 1904 and 1912. It was Kafka's first published book, printed at the end of 1912 in the Rowohlt Verlag on the initiative of Kurt Wolff.

Overview

Betrachtung (published in English as Meditation or Contemplation) is a collection of eighteen short stories by Franz Kafka written between 1904 and 1912. It was Kafka's first published book, printed at the end of 1912 (with the publication year given as "1913") in the Rowohlt Verlag on an initiative by Kurt Wolff. Eight of these stories were published before under the title Betrachtungen ("Contemplations") in the bimonthly Hyperion. The collection Description of a Struggle, published in 1958, includes some of the stories In English, in whole or in part. All the stories appear in The Complete Stories of Franz Kafka (1971) and were published in a single volume edition by Twisted Spoon Press, illustrated by Fedele Spadafora. They have also been translated by Malcolm Pasley and are available in the Penguin Books edition, The Transformation and Other Stories (1992). The book was printed in 800 editions and had in one year (1 July 1915 – 30 June 1916) sold 258 copies; it wasn't sold out until 1924, the year Kafka died. The Stories

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Also known as Meditation

Notable quotes

““The kingdom of heaven is within you.” And concerning the inner man, it consists of nothing but contemplation. Therefore the kingdom of heaven must be contemplation.”
— Basil of Caesarea, Letters, translated by R. Deferrari (1926), p. 89
“One can not justify all that is by asserting that everything may equally be the object of contemplation, since man never contemplates: he does.”
— Simone de Beauvoir, Part III: The Positive Aspect of Ambiguity
“About the twelfth century the possibility of sharing contemplation by means of preaching and other forms of apostolic activity began to be considered. This point of view was exemplified in the mixed life (contemplative and active) of the mendicant orders and was expressed in the formula: contemplata aliis tradere ("to transmit to others the fruits of contemplation").”
— Gustavo Gutiérrez, A Theology of Liberation (1971),p. 7
“The act of contemplation then creates the thing contemplated.”
— Isaac D'Israeli, Literary Character, Chapter XII.
“Contemplation makes a rare turkey-cock of him: how he jets under his advanced plumes.”
— William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night (c. 1601-02), Act II, scene 5, line 35.

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.