Kafka extracted these aphorisms himself, from journals he wrote between 1917 and 1919. The order and numbering are Kafka's. Eight of the aphorisms were written later, in 1920 or so, and do not occur in the original notebooks.



Kafka took up residence with his sister Ottla in Zurau, a small town in northern Bohemia, shortly after being diagnosed with tuberculosis in early September, 1917. It seems likely most of the aphorisms were composed at Zurau, even though some material does originate later.



By all accounts, this sojourn of eight months was the happiest period in Kafka's life.

