But eternity is not temporality at a standstill. What is oppressive about the concept of the eternal is the justification, incomprehensible to us, that time must undergo in eternity and the logical conclusion of that, the justification of ourselves as we are.

One advantage in keeping a diary is that you become aware with reassuring clarity of the changes which you constantly suffer.

The limited circle is pure.

I can love only what I can place so high above me that I cannot reach it.

I am free and that is why I am lost.

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.

It would have been so pointless to kill himself that, even if he had wanted to, the pointlessness would have made him unable.