"The first thing he wanted to do was get the lower part of his body out of the bed, but he had never seen this lower part, and could not imagine what it looked like." Metamorphosis and Other Stories

Old men are dangerous: it doesn't matter to them what is going to happen to the world. Heartbreak House

She lacks the indefinable charm of weakness. It is the feet of clay that make the gold of the image precious. The Picture of Dorian Gray

this second, violent world gushed out fragrantly everywhere, except in our rooms, where Mother and Father were. And that was very good. It was wonderful that here among us there was peace, order, and repose, duty and a clear conscience, forgiveness and love—and wonderful that all the rest existed, all those noisy, glaring, somber, and violent things, which nevertheless could be escaped with a single bound toward one’s mother. Demian