3
" I don’t deny that it was more than a coincidence which made things turn out as they did, it was a whole train of coincidences. But what has providence to do with it? I don’t need any mystical explanation for the occurrence of the improbable; mathematics explains it adequately, as far as I’m concerned.
Mathematically speaking, the probable (that in 6,000,000,000 throws with a regular six-sided die the one will come up approximately 1,000,000,000 times) and the improbable (that in six throws with the same die the one will come up six times) are not different in kind, but only in frequency, whereby the more frequent appears a priori more probable. But the occasional occurrence of the improbable does not imply the intervention of a higher power, something in the nature of a miracle, as the layman is so ready to assume. The term probability includes improbability at the extreme limits of probability, and when the improbable does occur this is no cause for surprise, bewilderment or mystification. "
― Max Frisch , Homo Faber
6
" I've often wondered what people mean when they talk about an experience. I'm a technologist and accustomed to seeing things as they are. I see everything they are talking about very clearly; after all, I'm not blind. I see the moon over the Tamaulipas desert--it is more distinct than at other times, perhaps, but still a calculable mass circling around our planet, an example of gravitation, interesting, but in what way an experience? I see the jagged rocks, standing out black against the moonlight; perhaps they do look like the jagged backs of prehistoric monsters, but I know they are rocks, stone, probably volcanic, one should have to examine them to be sure of this. Why should I feel afraid? There aren't any prehistoric monsters any more. Why should I imagine them? I'm sorry, but I don't see any stone angels either; nor demons; I see what I see--the usual shapes due to erosion and also my long shadow on the sand, but no ghosts. Why get womanish? I don't see any Flood either, but sand lit up by the moon and made undulating, like water, by the wind, which doesn't surprise me; I don't find it fantastic, but perfectly explicable. I don't know what the souls of the damned look like; perhaps like black agaves in the desert at night. What I see are agaves, a plant that blossoms once only and dies. Furthermore, I know (however I may look at the moment) that I am not the last or the first man on earth; and I can't be moved by the mere idea that I am the last man, because it isn't true. Why get hysterical? Mountains are mountains, even if in a certain light they may look like something else, but it is the Sierra Madre Oriental, and we are not standing in a kingdom of the dead, but in the Tamaulipas desert, Mexico, about sixty miles from the nearest road, which is unpleasant, but in what way an experience? Nor can I bring myself to hear something resembling eternity; I don't hear anything, apart from the trickle of sand at every step. Why should I experience what isn't there? "
― Max Frisch , Homo Faber
15
" Ich finde sie lustig, ihre heutigen Tänze, lustig zum Schauen, diese existentialistische Hopserei, wo jeder für sich allein tanzt, seine eignen Faxen schwingt, verwickelt in die eignen Beine, geschüttelt wie von einem Schüttelfrost, alles etwas epileptisch, aber lustig, sehr temperamentvoll, muß ich sagen, aber ich kann das nicht. "
― Max Frisch , Homo Faber
20
" Аз не мога през цялото време да изпитвам чувства. Да бъда сам, за мене това е единствената възможна форма на съществуване, понеже нямам никакво желание да правя една жена нещастна, а жените проявяват тази склонност – да стават нещастни. Признавам – да бъдеш сам е не винаги весело, човек не винаги е във форма. Впрочем, от опит зная, че щом ние не сме във форма, и жените загубват формата си; а щом ги обземе скука – започват обвиненията в липса на чувства. В такъв случай, честно казано, предпочитам да случая сам. "
― Max Frisch , Homo Faber