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.
Truth is a remarkable thing. We cannot miss knowing some of it. But we cannot know it entirely.
We have to stop and be humble enough to understand that there is something called mystery.
But then he told himself: What does it really mean to be useful? Today's world, just as it is, contains the sum of the utility of all people of all times. Which implies: The highest morality consists in being useless.
If there is existence, there must be non-existence. And if there was a time when nothing existed, there must have been a time before that - when even nothing did not exist. Suddenly, when nothing came into existence, could one really say whether it belonged to the category of existence or non-existence?
The only unbearable thing is that nothing is unbearable.
In other centuries, human beings wanted to be saved, or improved, or freed, or educated. But in our century, they want to be entertained. The great fear is not of disease or death, but of boredom. A sense of time on our hands, a sense of nothing to do. A sense that we are not amused.
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