The Metamorphosis Quotes

“I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself.”
― Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis

“As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.”
― Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis

“How about if I sleep a little bit longer and forget all this nonsense",”
― Franz Kafka, Metamorphosis

“What am I doing here in this endless winter?”
― Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis and Other Stories

“Was he an animal, that music could move him so? He felt as if the way to the unknown nourishment he longed for were coming to light.”
― Franz Kafka, Metamorphosis

“He thought back on his family with deep emotion and love. His conviction that he would have to disappear was, if possible, even firmer than his sister's. He remained in this state of empty and peaceful reflection until the tower clock struck three in the morning. He still saw that outside the window everything was beginning to grow light. Then, without his consent, his head sank down to the floor, and from his nostrils streamed his last weak breath.”
― Franz Kafka, Metamorphosis

“He was a tool of the boss, without brains or backbone.”
― Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis

“The sister played so beautifully. Her face was tilted to one side and she followed the notes with soulful and probing eyes. Gregor advanced a little, keeping his eyes low so that they might possibly meet hers. Was he a beast if music could move him so?”
― Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis

“Calm —indeed the calmest— reflection might be better than the most confused decisions”
― Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis

“What's happened to me,' he thought. It was no dream.”
― Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis

“I only fear danger where I want to fear it.”
― Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis

“What a fate: to be condemned to work for a firm where the slightest negligence at once gave rise to the gravest suspicion! Were all the employees nothing but a bunch of scoundrels, was there not among them one single loyal devoted man who, had he wasted only an hour or so of the firm's time in the morning, was so tormented by conscience as to be driven out of his mind and actually incapable of leaving his bed?”
― Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis

“the blend of absurd, surreal and mundane which gave rise to the adjective "kafkaesque”
― Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis

“One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in his bed he had been changed into a monstrous bug…”
― Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis

“But Gregor understood easily that it was not only consideration for him which prevented their moving, for he could easily have been transported in a suitable crate with a few air holes; what mainly prevented the family from moving was their complete hopelessness and the thought that they had been struck by a misfortune as none of their relatives and acquaintances had ever been hit.”
― Franz Kafka, Metamorphosis

“And so gentlemen, I learned. Oh, if you have to learn, you learn; if you’re desperate for a way out, you learn; you learn pitilessly. You stand over yourself with a whip in your hand; if there’s the least resistance, you lash yourself.”
― Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis and Other Stories

“إننا نحتاج إلى تلك الكتب التي تنزل علينا كالصاعقة التي تؤلمنا، كموت من نحبه أكثر مما نحب أنفسنا، التي تجعلنا نشعر وكأننا قد طردنا إلى الغابات بعيدًا عن الناس " .
كافكا كان يكتب ليعري الإنسانية ، لتتجلي في أبشع صورها الحقيقة .”
― فرانز كافكا , The Metamorphosis

“The door could not be heard slamming; they had probably left it open, as is the custom in homes where a great misfortune has occurred.”
― Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis

“Was he an animal if music could captivate him so? It seemed to him that he was being shown the way to the unknown nourishment he had been yearning for.”
― Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis

“However, Gregor had become much calmer. All right, people did not understand his words any more, although they seemed clear enough to him, clearer than previously, perhaps because had gotten used to them”
― Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis

“If I didn't have my parents to think about I'd have given in my notice a long time ago, I'd have gone up to the boss and told him just what I think, tell him everything I would, let him know just what I feel. He'd fall right off his desk! And it's a funny sort of business to be sitting up there at your desk, talking down at your subordinates from up there, especially when you have to go right up close because the boss is hard of hearing.”
― Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis

“Gregor’s serious wound, from which he suffered for over a month - the apple remained imbedded in his flesh as a visible souvenir since no one dared to remove it - seemed to have reminded even his father that Gregor was a member of the family, in spite of his present pathetic and repulsive shape, who could not be treated as an enemy; that, on the contrary, it was the commandment of the family duty to swallow their disgust and endure him, endure him and nothing more.”
― Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis

“Als Gregor Samsa eines Morgens aus unruhigen Träumen erwachte, fand er sich in seinem Bett zu einem ungeheueren Ungeziefer verwandelt.”
― Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis

“A picture of my existence... would show a useless wooden stake covered in snow... stuck loosely at a slant in the ground in a ploughed field on the edge of a vast open plain on a dark winter night.”
― Franz Kafka, Metamorphosis

“Then his head sank to the floor of its own accord and from his nostrils came the last faint flicker of his breath.”
― Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis

“His biggest misgiving came from his concern about the loud crash that was bound to occur and would probably create, if not terror, at least anxiety behind all the doors. But that would have to be risked.”
― Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis

“إنه النسيان الألف للحلم الذي ترائي ألف مرة، وتم نسيانه ألف مرة.”
― Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis

“If they were shocked, then Gregor had no further responsibility and could be calm. But if they took everything calmly, he he, too, had no reason to get excited and could, if he hurried, actually be at the station by eight o'clock.”
― Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis

“His growing lack of concern for the others hardly surprised him, whereas previously he had prided himself on being considerate.”
― Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis

“A man might find for a moment that he was unable to work, but that's exactly the right time to remember his past accomplishments and to consider that later on, when the obstacles has been removed, he's bound to work all the harder and more efficiently.”
― Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis