Those who have had no share in the good fortunes of the mighty Often have a share in their misfortunes.
BERTOLT BRECHTWith drooping shoulders The majority sit hunched, their foreheads furrowed like Stony ground that has been repeatedly ploughed-up to no purpose.
More Bertolt Brecht Quotes
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Poverty makes you sad as well as wise.
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Unhappiness doesn’t grow on the chest like leprosy. Poverty won’t fall off the roof like a loose tile, no; poverty and unhappiness are man’s doing.
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Writers can’t write as fast as governments make wars; because to write demands thinking.
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I was called up in the war and sent to a hospital. I dressed wounds, applied iodine, gave enemas, did blood transfusions. If the doctor ordered: “Brecht, amputate a leg!”, I would reply, “Certainly, Your Excellency!”, and cut off the leg. If I was told, “Perform a trepanning!”
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The world of knowledge takes a crazy turn When teachers themselves are taught to learn.
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He who fights, can lose. He who doesn’t fight, has already lost.
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We need a type of theatre which not only releases the feelings, insights and impulses possible within the particular historical field of human relations in which the action takes place, but employs and encourages those thoughts and feelings which help transform the field itself.
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Oh! Moon of Alabama We now must say good-bye We’ve lost our good old mama And must have whiskey Oh, you know why!
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Their peace and their war Are like wind and storm. War grows from their peace.
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People are too durable, that’s their main trouble. They can do too much to themselves, they last too long.
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You have to attack once the truth is too weak to defend itself.
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Even hatred of vileness Distorts a mans features.
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The fate of man is man.
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Science knows only one commandment – contribute to science.
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Sin is what is new, strong, surprising, strange. The theatre must take an interest in sin if the young are to be able to go there.
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Reality changes; in order to represent it, modes of representation must change.
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To those who does not know the world is on fire, I have nothing to say.
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If you join the rat race — you’re in the race of rats.
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Who built the seven gates of Thebes? In the books are listed the names of kings. Did the kings heave up the building blocks?
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Who has good luck is good, Who has bad luck is bad.
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There are some with brains and some without. It makes for a better division of labour.
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We attacked a foreign people and treated them like rebels. As you know, it’s all right to treat barbarians barbarically. It’s the desire to be barbaric that makes governments call their enemies barbarians.
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Erst kommt das Fressen, dann kommt die Moral.
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Don’t be afraid of death so much as an inadequate life.
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The defeats and victories of the fellows at the top aren’t always defeats and victories for the fellows at the bottom.
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The fanatics for progress often have too little appreciation of the existing.
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