You can put anything into words, except your own life.
Max FrischRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
A society's values are reflected in the public figures it idolizes, and questioning these figures is akin to questioning society itself.
Max Frisch's quote highlights the significant role that famous individuals play in shaping and reflecting societal values. It suggests that the choice of public figures—whether they be artists, politicians, or celebrities—is a mirror of the society's ideals, ethics, and aspirations. Critiquing these figures, therefore, implies a deeper critique of the society that elevates them, prompting a reflection on the collective values and judgments of the community as a whole.
Themes
SocietyFamous PeopleValuesCriticismReflection
In practice
Example use cases
During a debate about celebrity influence in media, one might reference this quote to emphasize the responsibility of society in choosing its idols.
More from Max Frisch
All quotes →Technology... the knack of so arranging the world that we don't have to experience it.
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.
Max FrischRead
When we travel, we are like a film at the moment of exposure; it is memory that will develop it.
Max FrischRead
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.
Max FrischRead
Nothing is harder than to accept oneself.
Max FrischRead
Similar quotes
Man, whatever else he may be, is primarily a practical being, whose mind is given him to aid in adapting him to this world's life
William JamesRead
After reading all that has been written, and after thinking all that can be thought, on the topics of God and the soul, the man who has a right to say that he thinks at all, will find himself face to face with the conclusion that, on these topics, the most profound thought is that which can be the least easily distinguished from the most superficial sentiment.
Edgar Allan PoeRead
Life is like an eternal dance. The movements of the dance are choreographed through your awareness.
Deepak ChopraRead
Cyprian was not issuing a new decree but was keeping to the most solid belief of the Church in order to correct some who thought that infants ought not be baptized before the eighth day after their birth. . . . He agreed with certain of his fellow bishops that a child is able to be duly baptized as soon as he is born.
Saint AugustineRead
It was a time when only the dead smiled, happy in their peace.
Anna AkhmatovaRead
Objects exist and if one pays more attention to them than to people, it is precisely because they exist more than the people. Dead objects are still alive. Living people are often already dead.
Jean-Luc GodardRead