The Metamorphosis, In The Penal Colony, And Other Stories: The Great Short Works Of Franz Kafka Quotes
"Our grandparents spoke Yiddish, our parents spoke German, and those of us who are left speak Czech."
"Franz Kafka was born in Prague at the end of the nineteenth century, and for most of his lifetime Bohemia and Moravia belonged to Austria-Hungary."
"Language in modern Europe became a defining national and then political characteristic."
"Kafka’s prose reveals a careful and lucid Prague German with an Austrian tinge."
"You have no friend in St. Petersburg. You've always been a prankster, and you've never spared me either."
"Because she pulled her skirts up, you accosted her, and, in order to satisfy your lust with her unhampered, you disgraced our mother’s memory, betrayed your friend, and put your father to bed so that he can't move."
"Stay where you are, I don’t need you! I’m still a lot stronger than you."
"I’m sure you had your reason," said the stoker, and there was no telling whether he was demanding or dismissing the story behind that reason.
"I’m going now.—Only, you see, I don’t know his name or where he lives—I guess I’ve forgotten—but it doesn’t matter, because I don’t even know if I actually have a brother-in-law."
"Faith can move mountains," said the man, vigorously scratching his short, dark, thick hair.
"A man may be temporarily incapacitated, but that is precisely the proper time to remember his past achievements and to bear in mind that later on, once the obstacle is eliminated, he is sure to work all the harder and more intently."
"He felt included once again in human society and, without really drawing a sharp distinction between the doctor and the locksmith, he expected magnificent and astonishing feats from both."
"He lay on the floor, wobbling because of his checked movement, not that far from his mother, who seemed altogether self-absorbed."
"Gregor realized he must on no account allow the office manager to leave in this frame of mind; if he did, Gregor's position at the office would be thoroughly compromised."
"It was truly as if the stoker no longer existed."
"Feeling a slight itch on his belly, he slowly squirmed along on his back toward the bedpost in order to raise his head more easily."
"As he speedily turned all these things over in his mind, but could not resolve to get out of bed—the alarm clock was just striking a quarter to seven—there was a cautious rap on the door near the top end of his bed."
"Gregor had no choice, for he realized with dismay that he did not even know how to stay the course when backing up."
"He had swung around almost fully when, constantly distracted by those hisses, he actually miscalculated and briefly shifted the wrong way."
"He was scared of advancing any further in this manner; for if he ultimately let himself plunge down like this, only an outright miracle would prevent injury to his head."
"How profoundly we took in the transfigured expression from the tortured face."
"It's always risky interfering decisively in other people's business."
"No one could assume any self-serving motives on the traveler's part."
"I was a citizen of neither the penal colony nor the country it belonged to."
"How intensely our cheeks basked in the glow of that justice, attained at long last and already fading!"
"The condemned man had laid down his head and he looked peaceful."
"The traveler was deeply embarrassed; he gazed impatiently over the officer's head."
"It was impossible to allow everyone who requested it to watch from up close."
"But no sooner did he take a few steps than he was already at the graveyard."
"I fear that people may not understand exactly what I mean by 'a way out.'"
"I no longer know whether escape was possible, though I believe it was."
"In surveying my development and what I have achieved so far, I neither complain nor am satisfied."
"Previously, I had had so many ways out, and now I had none."
"One learns if one must: one learns if one wants a way out; one learns relentlessly."
"My freedom of movement would not have been further reduced even had I been nailed to the spot."
"There is a marvelous German idiom: 'to slink off into the bushes'—meaning 'to see something through'—and that was what I did: I slunk off into the bushes."
"He feels no cold; besides, he was constantly moving."
"I did survive that period. Dull sobbing, painful flea-picking, tired licking of a coconut, banging my skull against the crate wall, sticking my tongue out at whoever approached—those were my first activities in my new life."
"In any case, I have, all in all, attained what I set out to attain. Let no one say it was not worth the bother."
"The trapeze artist could have gone on living like that, undisturbed, had it not been for the inevitable traveling from place to place, which was extremely burdensome."
"The hunger artist greatly preferred the watchmen who sat right at the bars."
"What should the hunger artist do now? This man, who had been cheered by thousands of people, could not display himself in sideshows at small fairs."
"A large circus, with its constant turnover of huge numbers of people and animals and apparatuses, can find use for anyone at any time, even a hunger artist."
"I always wanted you people to admire my hungering," said the hunger artist.
"But you shouldn't admire it," said the hunger artist.
"Because I have to hunger, I can't help it," said the hunger artist.
"Because I couldn't find any food that I liked. Had I found some, believe me, I wouldn't have made any fuss, I would have stuffed myself like you and everyone else."
"Clean the place up!" said the supervisor, and they buried the hunger artist together with the straw.