To those who does not know the world is on fire, I have nothing to say.
Interpretation
The quote implies that if someone is unaware of the fundamental issues in the world, there is no point in engaging with them.
Bertolt Brecht's quote reflects a sense of frustration toward ignorance. By stating that he has 'nothing to say' to those who fail to recognize the worldβs burning issues, it suggests that awareness and acknowledgment of societal problems are prerequisites for meaningful dialogue. It highlights the importance of being aware of oneβs surroundings and the collective challenges faced by humanity, implying that without this understanding, conversations about solutions are futile.
In practice
Using this quote in a speech about raising awareness for climate change.
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's too much tendency to attribute to God the evils that man does of his own free will.
Wherever capitalism appears, in pursuit of its mission of exploitation, there will Socialism, fertilized by misery, watered by tears, and vitalized by agitation be also found, unfurling its class-struggle banner and proclaiming its mission of emancipation.
I am sorry my life is so marred and maimed by extravagance. But I cannot live otherwise. I, at any rate, pay the penalty of suffering.
Though it be in the power of the weakest arm to take away life, it is not in the strongest to deprive us of death.
Every man possesses that which is according to the image of God, for the gifts of God are irrevocable (Rom. 11:29). But only a few ? those who are virtuous and holy, and have imitated the goodness of God to the limit of human powers ? possess that which is according to the likeness of God.
No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.