“How much self-knowledge is limited to presenting other people with a more precise and exact description of our weaknesses.”

—  Max Frisch

I'm not Stiller (1955)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "How much self-knowledge is limited to presenting other people with a more precise and exact description of our weakness…" by Max Frisch?
Max Frisch photo
Max Frisch 67
Swiss playwright and novelist 1911–1991

Related quotes

George Steiner photo

“Self-projection is, more often than not, the move of the minor craftsman, of the tactics of the hour whose inherent weakness is, precisely, that of originality.”

George Steiner (1929–2020) American writer

Source: Real Presences (1989), III: Presences, Ch. 3 (p. 170).

Jean Vanier photo

“I am struck by how sharing our weakness and difficulties is more nourishing to others than sharing our qualities and successes.”

Jean Vanier (1928–2019) Canadian humanitarian

From books
Source: Jean Vanier, Community And Growth, 1979

Javier Marías photo

“…possessed of more self-knowledge, which is the kind of knowledge that makes people attractive.”

Javier Marías (1951) Spanish writer

...sabe más de sí misma, que es el conocimiento que hace atractivas a las personas.
Source: Todas las Almas [All Souls] (1989), p. 68

“The opportunities for heroism are limited in this kind of world: the most people can do is sometimes not to be as weak as they’ve been at other times.”

Angus Wilson (1913–1991) british author

Malcolm Cowley (ed.) Writers at Work: The Paris Review Interviews, First Series (New York: Viking Press, [1958] 1959) p. 261.

Toni Morrison photo

“Oppressive language does more than represent violence; it is violence; does more than represent the limits of knowledge; it limits knowledge.”

Toni Morrison (1931–2019) American writer

Nobel Prize Lecture (1993)
Context: Tongue-suicide is not only the choice of children. It is common among the infantile heads of state and power merchants whose evacuated language leaves them with no access to what is left of their human instincts for they speak only to those who obey, or in order to force obedience. The systematic looting of language can be recognized by the tendency of its users to forgo its nuanced, complex, mid-wifery properties for menace and subjugation. Oppressive language does more than represent violence; it is violence; does more than represent the limits of knowledge; it limits knowledge. Whether it is obscuring state language or the faux-language of mindless media; whether it is the proud but calcified language of the academy or the commodity driven language of science; whether it is the malign language of law-without-ethics, or language designed for the estrangement of minorities, hiding its racist plunder in its literary cheek — it must be rejected, altered and exposed. It is the language that drinks blood, laps vulnerabilities, tucks its fascist boots under crinolines of respectability and patriotism as it moves relentlessly toward the bottom line and the bottomed-out mind. Sexist language, racist language, theistic language — all are typical of the policing languages of mastery, and cannot, do not permit new knowledge or encourage the mutual exchange of ideas.

Elizabeth Bibesco photo

“Life more often teaches us how to perfect our weaknesses than how to develop our strengths.”

Elizabeth Bibesco (1897–1945) writer, actress; Romanian princess

Haven (1951)

“Only one who has learned much can fully appreciate his ignorance.
He knows well the limits of his knowledge and how much is waiting to be learned.”

Louis L'Amour (1908–1988) Novelist, short story writer

Source: Education of a Wandering Man (1989), Ch. 11

Arthur Conan Doyle photo
Sun Myung Moon photo

“Absolute faith is not the place of self-affirmation, but the place of self-negation. Life of faith is not limited to our spiritual life. What is important is how our spiritual sensitivity is applied to our relative environment.”

Sun Myung Moon (1920–2012) Korean religious leader

The Way of God's Will Chapter 3-2 Life of Faith http://www.unification.org/ucbooks/WofGW/wogw3-02.htm Translated 1980.

Related topics