In my view, the great and complicated things that go on in the world cannot be adequately recognized by people who do not use every possible aid to understanding.
BERTOLT BRECHTOh why do we not say the important things, it would be so easy, and we are damned because we do not.
More Bertolt Brecht Quotes
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What they could do with ’round here is a good war. What else can you expect with peace running wild all over the place? You know what the trouble with peace is? No organization.
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Go make yourself a plan And be a shining light. Then make yourself a second plan, For neither will come right.
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What’s a joy to the one is a nightmare to the other.
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Those who have had no share in the good fortunes of the mighty Often have a share in their misfortunes.
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The storm that bends the birch trees Is held to be violent But how about the storm That bends the backs of the roadworkers?
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First feed the face, then talk right and wrong.
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The worst illiterate is the political illiterate. He hears nothing, sees nothing, takes no part in political life. He doesn’t seem to know that the cost of living, the price of beans, of flour, of rent, of medicines all depend on political decisions.
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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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For art to be ‘unpolitical’ means only to ally itself with the ‘ruling’ group.
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When the leaders speak of peace The common folk know That war is coming When the leaders curse war
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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.
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You have to attack once the truth is too weak to defend itself.
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Suppose they gave a war, and nobody came? Why then, the war would come to you!
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Who fights may lose, but who does not fight has lost already.
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One cannot be arraigned for declaring a war, which every ruler has to do once in a while, but only for running a war badly.
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As regards obstacles, the shortest distance between two points can be a curve.
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Art and science work in quite different ways: agreed. But, bad as it may sound, I have to admit that I cannot get along as an artist without the use of one or two sciences. …
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Realist writing, of which history offers many widely varying examples, is likewise conditioned by the question of how, when and for what class it is made use of.
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Writers can’t write as fast as governments make wars; because to write demands thinking.
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Great sport begins at a point where it has ceased to be healthy.
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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.
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A theater without beer is just a museum
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Schoenberg is too melodious for me, too sweet.
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Erst kommt das Fressen, dann kommt die Moral.
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Bank robbery is an initiative of amateurs. True professionals establish a bank.
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