B. Traven Quotes & Sayings

The treasure which you think not worth taking trouble and pains to find, this alone is the real treasure you are longing for all your life. The glittering treasure you are hunting for day and night lies buried on the other side of that hill yonder. — B. Traven

Don't ever believe that kings were done with when the fathers of the country made a revolution. — B. Traven

No use to preach to the working-man courtesy & politeness when at the same time the working-man is not given working conditions under which he can stay polite and soft-mannered. — B. Traven

If you wish to survive, you have to win the battle. — B. Traven

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

A trip to a Central American jungle to watch how Indians behave near a bridge won't make you see either the jungle or the bridge or the Indians if you believe that the civilization you were born into is the only one that counts. Go and look around with the idea that everything you learned in school and college is wrong. — B. Traven

The creative person should have no other biography than his works. — B. Traven

My personal history would not be disappointing to readers, but it is my own affair which I want to keep to myself. I am in fact in no way more important than is the typesetter for my books, the man who works the mill; no more important than the man who binds my books and the woman who wraps them and the scrubwoman who cleans up the office. — B. Traven

It would have been a rare thing anyhow for an official to come upon an idea that is not provided for in the regulations. — B. Traven

I wonder what goes on night and day beneath the surface of a cemetery. — B. Traven

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

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. — B. Traven

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. — B. Traven

Anyone who is willing to work and is serious about it will certainly find a job. Only you must not go to the man who tells you this, for he has no job to offer and doesn't know anyone who knows of a vacancy. This is exactly the reason why he gives you such generous advice, out of brotherly love, and to demonstrate how little he knows the world. — B. Traven

If you do not wish to be lied to, do not ask questions. If there were no questions, there would be no lies. — B. Traven

The deplorable thing is that the people who were tortured yesterday, torture today. — B. Traven