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B. Traven Quotes

1882–1969 Germany

B. Traven (Bruno Traven in some accounts, born 23 February 1882 in Schwiebus, died 26 March 1969 in Mexico City) was the pen name of a presumably German novelist, whose real name, nationality, date and place of birth and details of biography are all subject to dispute.

Germany
Novelists
Socialists

Random B. Traven quote

25 quotes

There's absolutely nothing that you can't learn if you go about it one step at a time.

The Cotton Pickers (1927)

Ordinary people can never fall over the walls, because they never dare climb high enough to see what is beyond the walls.

The Death Ship (1926)

If all people had a decent job to occupy their minds, and regular meals to satisfy their hunger, most crimes would not be committed.

The Death Ship (1926)

A working-man's life is a dog's life, that's what it is.

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1927)

It is always more convenient to dream of what might be.

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1927)

The biography of a creative man is completely unimportant.

If you wish to survive, you have to win the battle.

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1927)

Life is worth more than any book one can write.

An author should have no other biography than his books.

It isn't the gold that changes man, it is the power which gold gives to man that changes the soul of man. This power, though, is only imaginary. If not recognized by other men, it does not exist.

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1927)

I am freer than anybody else. I am free to choose the parents I want, the country I want, the age I want.

Of the three: state, government and I, I am the strongest. Remember that!

The death ship is it I am in,
All I have lost, nothing to win

The Death Ship (1926)

Morals are taught and preached not for the sake of heaven, but to assist those people on earth who have everything they need and more to retain their possessions and to help them to accumulate still more. Morals is the butter for those who have no bread.

The Death Ship (1926)

It is an old rule, only not sufficiently obeyed, but a good rule: If you do not wish to be lied to, do not ask questions! The only real defense civilized man has against anybody who bothers him is to lie. There would be no lies if there were no questions.

The Death Ship (1926)

Whatever a being may own is of no importance, of no concern at all. It is gone and useless. All we have is our breath. I shall fight for it with teeth and nails.

The Death Ship (1926)

The prison was very important—as everywhere on earth. Everywhere the building of a prison is the first step in the organization of a civilized state.

Government (1931)

A good capitalist system does not know waste. This system cannot allow these tens of thousands of men without papers to roam about the world. Why are insurance premiums paid? For pleasure? Everything must produce its profit. Why not make premiums produce profit?

The Death Ship (1926)

The air bit into your lungs because it was filled with poisonous gas escaping from the refineries. That sting in the air which made breathing so hard and unpleasant and choked your throat constantly meant that people were making money–much money.

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1927)

No use to preach to the working-man courtesy and politeness when at the same time the working-man is not given working conditions under which he can always stay polite and soft-mannered. One must not expect clean speech from a man compelled to live in filth and always overtired and usually hungry.

The Death Ship (1926)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: B. Traven (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.