"Accident is the name one gives to the coincidence of events, of which one does not know the causation… Accidents only exist in our heads, in our limited perceptions" - Franz Kafka (1883-1924). In Gustav Janouch, Conversations with Kafka, p. 55, tr. Goronwy Rees, 1953

The first and most obvious way to read this quotation is to understand it as saying that there are no accidents - that is, that each thing that happens which we imagine to be an accident or due to the vagaries of fate, is in reality caused by a certain chain of events. When we curse fate, we are cursing that which does not exist. We are prone to saying woe is me when our house burns down, or our lottery ticket is a bust. On the other hand, we praise Lady fortune when we win big at the tables, or narrowly avoid an out of control car. This turn to cry out to the fates, to blame happenstance for our misery and happiness, is something we must beware of. When we ascribe the courses of things to fate, we implicitly suggest that the power to do those things, to experience or avoid them, is out of our hands. We can too easily give up, or be tempted to ignore problems and issues. When we recognize that events are caused on the other hand, we can see that we are able to affect our fate at all times. It may be that we cannot control everything, but that does not mean that we cannot control some things. If there is anything we can control, it is us. As well, even what we cannot control we can still see. This seeing goes even beyond our control of the self - for we may certainly experience events where we feel we must act, high actions of true morality, or low actions of addiction. When we are blind, even though we control ourselves, if we see not that this is the case, we will not recognize the ability to direct the self. When we do not understand why something has happened, then it appears to be due to fate, to events and causes which we cannot control. The vast majority of human activity is improved by a correct understanding of risk, of knowing that things have causes, and that even though we do not know all that may happen or why, we can still understand some of it. We can still see the storm-signs far off, and we can still imagine what may be. We are not always wrong about what happens - even though it may seem so sometimes, the key to improving is not to give up and leave things to fate. Rather, the key is to improve our perceptions, to see better. 

The second way of understanding the quote is to imagine that the world is mostly deterministic. Indeed, that 'Accidents only exist in our head'. What we perceive as accidents and what we call accidents is only a result of the way in which we perceive the world. There is a saying which goes: Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, and three times is enemy actions. Another saying - fool me once, shame on you; Fool me twice, shame on me. If we can reduce the number of accidents by improving our perceptions, then a mere understanding that we need To prove our sight is not all we may learn from this quote. Understanding that what we ascribe to accident and fate is never quite that is only the first step. We also need to learn why it is that we make this mistake. We can do this by a better understanding of our own perceptions, of both ourselves and the world. Not just to know, but to see.

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