You can put anything into words, except your own life.
Max FrischRead
We live technologically, with man as the master of nature, man as the engineer, and let anyone who raises his voice against it stop using bridges not built by nature.... No electric light bulbs, no engines, no atomic energy, no calculating machines, no anaesthetics-back to the jungle.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote critiques humanity's reliance on technology and highlights the contradiction of using inventions while opposing technological advancement.
Max Frisch's quote reflects on the deep-rooted connection between humanity and technology, suggesting that to criticize technological progress while still benefiting from it is hypocritical. It underscores the idea that modern life is intricately tied to human ingenuity and the mastery over nature, implying that rejecting technology is akin to regressing to a primitive state devoid of modern conveniences and advancements.
Themes
TechnologyMasteryNatureHypocrisyProgress
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate about the benefits of technology versus nature conservation.
More from Max Frisch
All quotes →Technology... the knack of so arranging the world that we don't have to experience it.
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When we travel, we are like a film at the moment of exposure; it is memory that will develop it.
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We live in an age of reproduction. Most of what makes up our personal picture of the world we have never seen with our own eyes--or rather, we've seen it with our own eyes, but not on the spot: our knowledge comes to us from a distance, we are televiewers, telehearers, teleknowers.
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Nothing is harder than to accept oneself.
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A society needs famous people; the question is whom it chooses for that role. Any criticism of its choice is by implication a criticism of that society.
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