metamorphasis
No. You have acted decisively several times already and nothing was improved by it. Don’t try to explain it; I am sure you can explain the past, down to the last detail, considering that you are too timid to embark upon a future without having it thoroughly explained in advance–which is plainly impossible.[...]
Rise up, then. Mend your ways, escape officialdom, start seeing what you are instead of calculating what you should become. There is no question of your first task: become a soldier. [...]
The comparison with Grillparzer is valid, perhaps, but you don’t think Grillparzer a proper one to imitate, do you? an unhappy example whom future generations should thank for having suffered for them.
–Franz Kafka, Diaries, August 27, 1916
From a letter to Felice:
You belong to me, I have made you mind. I can’t believe that there was ever a woman in a fairy tale fought for harder and more desperately than I have fought for you within myself, from the beginning, and always anew, and perhaps forever. You belong to me then…
– Diaries, October 18, 1916
