"Today the longing for God and the fear of sin are gravely enfeebled. We have sunk into a morass of presumption... Today there is no sin and no longing for God. Everything is completely mundane and utilitarian. God lies outside our existence. And therefore all of us suffer a universal paralysis of conscience. All transcendental conflicts seem to have vanished, and yet all of them defend themselves like the wooden figures of the Jacobskirche. We are immobilized. We are completely transfixed. More than that! Most of us are simply glued to the shaky stool of vulgar common sense by the filth of fear. That is our entire way of life."
(Janouch, 1968, 51)

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Janouch, G. Conversations with Kafka, Andre Deutch, 1968.