Book: Castle

But he’s nothing, it’s a pity to look at his position. Yes, he is a land surveyor, it may mean something, it turns out, he learned something, but if this knowledge cannot be applied in any way, it means that he is still nothing. However, he puts demands without any hesitation, and although he does not put these demands directly, it is immediately obvious that he has some demands, and this annoys everyone.

I learned the wickedness of the world, before which my own wickedness gives in, becomes meaningless.

Wasn't he summoned for the night interrogation, and doesn't he know why these night calls were instituted? The purpose of the night calls - and then K. heard a new explanation of their meaning - was to listen as quickly as possible to the petitioners, whose appearance by day gentlemen officials are unbearable, to listen to them at night under artificial light, using the opportunity after the questioning to forget all this muck in a dream.

K. saw the complete futility of his efforts. Besides him, orders were made, both favorable and unfavorable, and even in the most favorable there was an unfavorable core, in every case everything passed by him, and he himself was at a too low level to intervene in the matter, to make others shut up, and to hear himself.

The secretaries do not spare visitors at all, as well as themselves, here they do not know mercy. But in essence, this ruthlessness is nothing more than an iron order in the performance of official duties, and what more can visitors desire for themselves?

Of course, among the secretaries there are both more diligent and less diligent, as elsewhere, but none of them, at least openly, complains about too much workload. It's just not in our habits. In this regard, we do not differentiate between regular and business hours. This distinction is foreign to us.

Yes, there are control departments everywhere. True, they are not intended for the purpose of detecting errors in the crude sense of the word, because there are no mistakes here, and if they do, as in your case, then who can definitively say that this is a mistake?

Nowhere else has K. seen such an intertwining of work and personal life as here - they are so intertwined that sometimes it might seem that service and personal life have changed places.

Direct contact with the authorities was not so difficult, because these authorities, for all their excellent organization, defended distant and invisible affairs in the name of distant and invisible masters.

You are terribly unaware of our affairs here, just dizzy when you listen to you, when you mentally compare your words and your statements with the true state of affairs. You can't correct your understanding right away, or maybe you won't do anything at all, but it will be better in many ways if you trust me a little and know that you don't know anything.

I don’t deny, maybe sometimes you can achieve something, despite all the laws, all the old customs, I myself have never seen this in my life.

There are so many obstacles in the world, and the higher the goal, the more difficult the obstacles, and there is nothing shameful if you provide yourself with the help of a person, albeit insignificant, not influential, but also fighting.

Chance always takes the side of the gentlemen.

All the time you want to consider yourself cheated, because it is flattering, it is touching.