“The Sunny Side of Franz Kafka: Words of Wisdom” selected by Maria Moreira
As a teenager, Maria Moreira fell in love with Franz Kafka through his letters and diaries, discovering the uplifting, humorous, and romantic Franz before meeting the slightly complex, somewhat clouded author Kafka. After that discovery, Kafka has remained a cherished companion. Since 2022, she has shared this brighter side of Kafka through The Sunny Side of Franz Kafka, an X account followed by more than 150,000 readers. A theology graduate and long-time professional in dementia care, Maria lives near the sea on Sweden’s West Coast with her family and her cat, Banderas. Her mornings begin, unfailingly, with coffee…and Kafka.
The Sunny Side of Franz Kafka: Words of Wisdom is a selection from Kafka’s diaries. These are brief entries laid out on a page. The English translation is on the top half of the page and the original German. Born and raised in Prague as a German-speaking Ashkenazi Jew, Kafka used Standard German for all of his published books, stories, and letters. Growing up in Prague, he also spoke and understood Czech, though he rarely wrote literary fiction in it. As Maria Moreira writes in her introduction that she collected these “sunny quotes” from Kafka’s diaries because she firmly believed that he could act as a life coach, where quotes from his letters could serve as a form of a daily pep talk. More so when you look carefully at the dates and link it back to the events in history at the time. Otherwise it is easy to only read the words on the page, out of context, and take them at face value, but the import dawns upon one when correlating it to WWI events.
It is absolutely extraordinary to find joy in that which is mostly associated with the bleak as most do with Kafka’s writings. These selections from his archives give one hope.
Fun fact: Most of Kafka’s papers are to be found in Israel and are considered their national library’s property.
Read The Sunny Side of Franz Kafka: Words of Wisdom.
10 Nov 2026
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