'What do you think the end will be?' asked the priest. 'I used to think it would end well,' K. said, 'but now I feel doubtful about it sometimes. I don't know how it will end. Do you know?' 'No,' said the priest, 'but I fear it will end badly. You are considered guilty. Your case will perhaps never get beyond a lower court. But for now at least your guilt is considered a proven fact.' 'But I am not guilty,' K. said. 'It's a mistake. How can a human being ever be guilty? We are all human beings here after all, each the same as the other.' 'That is right,' said the priest, 'but everyone who is guilty always talks like that.'

The Trial by Franz Kafka (pp. 168–169, trans. Idris Parry), ISBN 978-0-241-67889-3