For this world we live in
None of us is sly enough.
Never do we notice
All is lie and bluff.
Caesar beat the Gauls.
Was there not even a cook in his army?
Do not treat me in this fashion. Don’t leave me out. Have I not
Always spoken the truth in my books? And now
You treat me like a liar! I order you:
Burn me!
Those who lead the country into the abyss
Call ruling too difficult
For ordinary men.
Ah, what an age it is
When to speak of trees is almost a crime
For it is a kind of silence about injustice!
—Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956)
Good dogs do not bite chickens; good husbands do not beat their wives.
—Chinese proverb.
What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor?
—Bible: Hebrew Isaiah, 3:15.