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.
There are sacraments of evil as well as of good about us, and we live and move to my belief in an unknown world, a place where there are caves and shadows and dwellers in twilight. It is possible that man may sometimes return on the track of evolution, and it is my belief that an awful lore is not yet dead.
Life doesn't do anything to you. It only reveals your spirit.
Obscenity is our name for the uneasiness which upsets the physical state associated with self-possession, with the possession of a recognized and stable individuality.
Fire. God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of the philosophers and the scholars. I will not forget thy word. Amen.
It is from your hands that Our Lord, in the person of the sick, seeks relief.
A particularly beautiful woman is a source of terror. As a rule, a beautiful woman is a terrible disappointment.
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