The Metamorphosis

by Franz Kafka

At the same time, however, he did not forget to keep reminding himself periodically of the fact that calm—indeed the calmest—reflection might be much better than confused decisions.

It was, on the contrary, a requirement of family duty to suppress one’s aversion and to endure—nothing else, just endure.

The main thing holding the family back from a change in living quarters was far more their complete hopelessness and the idea that they had been struck by a misfortune like no one else in their entire circle of relatives and acquaintances.