“The history of mankind is the instant between two strides taken by a traveler.”
The Blue Octavo Notebooks (1954)
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Franz Kafka 266
author 1883–1924Related quotes

“You don't need to travel, laughter is an instant vacation”
Variant: Laughter is an instant vacation.

§ 1.15
Bodhicaryavatara, A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life

Preface
A Book of Travel to Three Continents (Translated from Dahri) (1914)
“Real travel would be to see the world, for even an instant, with another's eyes”
Source: Desert Places

As quoted in Lifetime Speaker's Encyclopedia (1962) edited by Jacob Morton Braude, p. 829
As quoted in Traveling for Her: An Inspirational Guide (2008) by Amber Israelsen, p. 2
Variant: I have wandered all my life, and I have traveled; the difference between the two is this — we wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment.

“Life is a traveling to the edge of knowledge, then a leap taken.”

Collected Works, Vol. 22, pp. 305–319.
Collected Works

Vol 2, Ch. 25 "Has History any Meaning?" Variant: There is no history of mankind, there are only many histories of all kinds of aspects of human life. And one of these is the history of political power. This is elevated into the history of the world.
The Open Society and Its Enemies (1945)
Context: There is no history of mankind, there is only an indefinite number of histories of all kinds of aspects of human life. And one of these is the history of political power. This is elevated into the history of the world. But this, I hold, is an offence against every decent conception of mankind. It is hardly better than to treat the history of embezzlement or of robbery or of poisoning as the history of mankind. For the history of power politics is nothing but the history of international crime and mass murder (including it is true, some of the attempts to suppress them). This history is taught in schools, and some of the greatest criminals are extolled as heroes.

Source: (1940), XVIII