Could he be an animal if music moved him so deeply? He felt as though a path were opening toward the unknown nourishment he had longed for.
New English translation
THE SOULMANCE COLLECTION
Words worth keeping.
A little inspiration. A different perspective. A thought to return to.
Above all, don’t lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others.
For we are like tree trunks in the snow. They seem to rest lightly on its surface, as though a small push could move them aside. No, that cannot be done, because they are firmly joined to the ground. But look, even that is only an appearance.
New English translation
But active love is labor and fortitude, and for some people too, perhaps, a complete science.
I stand on the platform of the electric tram, entirely uncertain of my place in this world, in this city, in my family.
New English translation
Avoid being scornful, both to others and to yourself. What seems to you bad within you will grow purer from the very fact of your observing it in yourself.
One morning, waking from troubled dreams, Gregor Samsa found that he had changed in his bed into an enormous verminous creature.
New English translation
Love all God’s creation, the whole and every grain of sand in it. Love every leaf, every ray of God’s light. Love the animals, love the plants, love everything.
What if I went on sleeping a little longer and forgot all this madness?
New English translation
Fathers and teachers, I ponder, “What is hell?” I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.
Beauty is a terrible and awful thing! It is terrible because it has not been fathomed and never can be fathomed, for God sets us nothing but riddles. Here the boundaries meet and all contradictions exist side by side.
If only Gregor could have spoken with his sister and thanked her for everything she had to do for him, he would have found her care easier to bear; as things were, it caused him pain.
New English translation
The awful thing is that beauty is mysterious as well as terrible. God and the devil are fighting there and the battlefield is the heart of man.
None of Gregor’s pleading helped, and none of it was understood; however humbly he turned his head, his father only stamped his feet more fiercely.
New English translation
To go wrong in one’s own way is better than to go right in someone else’s.
He scarcely wondered at how little consideration he had shown the others lately; once, that consideration had been his pride.
New English translation
Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart.
Talk nonsense, but talk your own nonsense, and I’ll kiss you for it.
Some people may feel sorry for me, but I feel nothing of their sympathy.
New English translation
Through error you come to the truth! I am a man because I err! You never reach any truth without making fourteen mistakes and very likely a hundred and fourteen.
It would be interesting to know what it is men are most afraid of. Taking a new step, uttering a new word is what they fear most....
I weigh my past against my future and find both excellent. I cannot prefer either one; I can only reproach the unfairness of providence for favouring me so much.
New English translation
They were renewed by love; the heart of each held infinite sources of life for the heart of the other.
Consider the persuasive power of the air after a thunderstorm! My own merits appear before me and overwhelm me, though I offer no resistance.
New English translation
Life had stepped into the place of theory and something quite different would work itself out in his mind.
Rising out of misery ought to be easy, even with energy summoned by an act of will.
New English translation
What man wants is simply independent choice, whatever that independence may cost and wherever it may lead.