For what's the use of talking with a man who has a disease and thinks about the stars?
Interpretation
The quote highlights the futility of discussing lofty ideas with someone preoccupied by pressing personal issues.
Bertolt Brecht's quote reflects the stark contrast between the grand aspirations of human thought, symbolized by 'the stars', and the harsh realities of life, represented by a 'man who has a disease'. It suggests that meaningful communication requires a sense of shared context and understanding, emphasizing that one must first contend with their immediate struggles before engaging in abstract discussions. This can speak to the importance of addressing personal challenges before seeking higher knowledge or enlightenment.
In practice
During a discussion about societal issues, one might cite this quote to emphasize the need to first tackle individual struggles.
The shrill voices of those who give orders Are full of fear like the squeakings of Piglets awaiting the butcher's knife, as their fat arses Sweat with anxiety in their office chairs.... Fear rules not only those who are ruled, but The rulers too.
We need a type of theatre which not only releases the feelings, insights and impulses possible within the particular historical field of human relations in which the action takes place, but employs and encourages those thoughts and feelings which help transform the field itself.
We attacked a foreign people and treated them like rebels. As you know, it's all right to treat barbarians barbarically. It's the desire to be barbaric that makes governments call their enemies barbarians.
War is like love, it always finds a way.
Art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it.
Recently my fingers have developed a prejudice against comparatives. They all follow this pattern: a squirrel is smaller than a tree; a bird is more musical than a tree. Each of us is the strongest one in his or her own skin. Characteristics should take off their hats to one another, instead of spitting in each other's faces.
Because you see when a new baby laughs for the first time a new fairy is born, and as there are always new babies there are always new fairies. They live in nests on the tops of trees; and the mauve ones are boys and the white ones are girls, and the blue ones are just little sillies who are not sure what they are.
What is being awake if not interpreting our dreams, or dreaming if not interpreting our wake?
. . . Moon-Watcher felt the first faint twinges of a new and potent emotion. It was a vague and diffuse sense of envy--of dissatisfaction with his life. He had no idea of its cause, still less of its cure; but discontent had come into his soul, and he had taken one small step toward humanity.
I have packed myself into silence so deeply and for so long that I can never unpack myself using words. When I speak, I only pack myself a little differently.
We do not choose the day of our birth nor may we choose the day of our death, yet choice is the sovereign faculty of the mind.
The belief that there is only one truth, and that oneself is in possession of it, is the root of all evil in the world.
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