black
grey
blue
red
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Grub first, then ethics.

Bertolt Brecht

The finest plans have always been spoiled by the littleness of them that should carry them out. Even emperors can’t do it all by themselves.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Finest Spoil
Who has good luck is good, Who has bad luck is bad.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Bad Good Luck
Writers can’t write as fast as governments make wars; because to write demands thinking.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Thinking War Writing
When something seems ‘the most obvious thing in the world’ it means that any attempt to understand the world has been given up.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Mean World
The storm that bends the birch trees Is held to be violent But how about the storm That bends the backs of the roadworkers?
BERTOLT BRECHT

Storm Tree Violent
There are times when you have to choose between being human and having good taste.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Being Good Human Nature Taste
Little changes are the enemies of great changes.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Change Enemy Littles
General, your tank is a powerful vehicle it smashes down forests and crushes a hundred men. but it has one defect: it needs a driver.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Crush Men Powerful
The first time it was reported that our friends were being butchered there was a cry of horror. Then a hundred were butchered. But when a thousand were butchered and there was no end to the butchery, a blanket of silence spread.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Fall Rain Summer
Something ignoble, loathsome, undignified attends all associations between people and has been transferred to all objects, dwelling, tools, even the landscape itself.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Dwelling Object People Tool
You may proclaim, good sirs, your fine philosophy But till you feed us, right and wrong can wait!
BERTOLT BRECHT

May Philosophy Waiting
Show them the red tail of a comet, fill them with black terror, and they will all come running out of their houses and break their legs. But tell them one sensible proposition, and support it with seven reasons, and they will simply laugh in your face.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Black Proposition Running Sensible Show Support
When crimes begin to pile up they become invisible. When sufferings become unendurable the cries are no longer heard. The cries, too, fall like rain in summer.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Fall Rain Summer
Unhappy the land that is in need of heroes.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Happiness Hero Land
Who fights may lose, but who does not fight has lost already.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Already Fighting May
Reality changes; in order to represent it, modes of representation must change.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Order Reality Representation

Grub first, then ethics.

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Grub first, then ethics.

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