Man in the Holocene Quotes

“-only human beings can recognize catastrophes, provided they survive them; Nature recognizes no catastrophes.”
― Max Frisch, Man in the Holocene

“The ants Geiser recently observed under a dripping fir tree are not concerned with what anyone might know about them; nor were the dinosaurs, which died out before a human being set eyes on them. All the papers, whether on the wall or on the carpet, can go. Who cares about the Holocene? Nature needs no names. Geiser knows that. The rocks do not need his memory.”
― Max Frisch, Man in the Holocene

“(Novels are no use at all on days like these, they deal with people and their relationships, with themselves and others, fathers and mothers and daughters or sons, lovers, etc., with individual souls, usually unhappy ones, with society, etc., as if the place for these things were assured, the earth for all time earth, the sea level fixed for all time.)”
― Max Frisch, Man in the Holocene

“Eschatology (f. Gr. eskhatos = last), theology of "the last things," i.e., the final fate of the individual human being and of the world.”
― Max Frisch, Man in the Holocene

“No knowledge without memory.”
― Max Frisch, Man in the Holocene

“To keep on looking at one's wristwatch, just in order to convince oneself that time is passing is absurd. Time has never yet stood still just because a person is bored and stands at the window, not knowing what he is thinking.”
― Max Frisch, Man in the Holocene