"What kind of times are these, when To talk about trees is almost a crime Because it implies silence about so many horrors?"

"The rope has been torn; a knot Can tie it again, but It’s been torn. Perhaps we’ll meet again, but You won’t find me In the place where we parted ways."

"The aim of science is not to open the door to everlasting truth, but to set a limit on everlasting error."

"Weaknesses You had none I had one: I loved."

"In my poetry a rhyme Would seem to me almost insolent. Inside me contend Delight at the apple tree in blossom And horror at the house-painter’s speeches. But only the second Drives me to my desk."

"All the world says: yes we know what’s written in the books but now let’s see what our eyes tell us."

"When the Chinese Wall was built, where'd the masons go for lunch? When Caesar conquered Gaul, was there not even a cook in the army? When the Armada sank, King Philip wept. Were there no other tears?"

"Art is not a mirror held up to society but a hammer with which to shape it."

"For time is short and the unknown surrounds us; and it isn't enough just to live unthinking and happy, calmly bearing oppression and only learning wisdom with age."

"It's all right to hesitate if you then go ahead."

"Old Man, right (sighing): Death to the fascists!"

"A Man lives off his head. His head won't see him through. Inspect your own— What lives on that? At most, a louse or two . . ."

"Boy meets girl. So what?"

"Unhappily, my wife is expecting me in connection with a fish"

"Mixing one's wines may be a mistake, but old and new wisdom mix admirably. The Singer, in The Caucasian Chalk Circle, prologue (1944)."

"Mankind lives by its head Its head won't see him through Inspect your own. What lives off that? At most a louse or two."

"THE POLICEMAN: I'm a policeman. I'm paid by those in charge to combat dissatisfaction."

"Unhappy is the land that breeds no hero! No, Andrea....unhappy is the land that needs a hero."

"Life is short and so is money."

"It is many years ago and at times I know nothing about her anymore who was once all things to me but all things pass. (The Eleventh Psalm)"

"Proof seduces them. One of the greatest pleasures of the human race is thinking."

"I hope I can pull the wagon by myself. Yes, I'll manage, there's not much in it now. I must get back into business."

"I discovered our dear poet in my office, a simple clerk."

"Girl Tractorist: As the poet Mayakovsky said: "The home of the Soviet people shall be the home of Reason"!"

"You who will emerge from the flood In which we have gone under Remember When you speak of our failings The dark time too Which you have escaped"

"Telling me there’s no difference between the moon and the Earth?"

"And you i beg make not your anger manifest. For all that lives needs help from all the rest."

"Food comes first and then morality Bertolt brecht"