A man who sees another man on the street corner with only a stump for an arm will be so shocked the first time he’ll give him sixpence. But the second time it’ll only be a three penny bit. And if he sees him a third time, he’ll have him cold-bloodedly handed over to the police.
BERTOLT BRECHTYou can’t write poems about trees when the woods are full of policemen.
More Bertolt Brecht Quotes
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Grub first, then ethics.
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Great sport begins at a point where it has ceased to be healthy.
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Things take indeed a wondrous turn When learned men do stoop to learn.
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The alienation effect in German epic theater is achieved not only through the actors, but also through music (chorus and song) andsets (transparencies, film strips, etc.). Its main purpose is to place the staged events in their historical context.
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Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are.
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When the leaders speak of peace, the common folk know war is coming.
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Reality changes; in order to represent it, modes of representation must also change. Nothing comes from nothing; the new comes from the old, but that is why it is new.
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Of all the works of man I like best Those which have been used. The copper pots with their dents and flattened edges The knives and forks whose wooden handles Have been worn away by many hands: such forms Seemed to me the noblest.
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Alas,we who wanted kindness, could not be kind ourselves.
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A theater without beer is just a museum
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You don’t need to pray to God any more when there are storms in the sky, but you do have to be insured.
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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.
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Unhappy the land that is in need of heroes.
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Poverty makes you sad as well as wise.
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…it is simplicity that is difficult to make.
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To live means to finesse the processes to which one is subjugated.
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If you don’t have fun, you don’t have a show.
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People who fight may lose. People who do not fight have already lost.
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Today every invention is received with a cry of triumph which soon turns into a cry of fear.
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Erst kommt das Fressen, dann kommt die Moral.
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Fearful is the seductive power of goodness.
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What kind of times are they, when A talk about trees is almost a crime Because it implies silence about so many horrors?
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He who fights, can lose. He who doesn’t fight, has already lost.
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The rain Never falls upwards. When the wound Stops hurting What hurts is The scar.
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You may proclaim, good sirs, your fine philosophy But till you feed us, right and wrong can wait!
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The fate of man is man.
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