Never believe on faith, see for yourself! What you yourself don’t learn you don’t know.
BERTOLT BRECHTWhen you name yourself, you always name another.
More Bertolt Brecht Quotes
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We often do not know ourselves the grounds On which we act, though plain to others.
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Those who take the most from the table, teach contentment. Those for whom the taxes are destined, demand sacrifice. Those who eat their fill, speak to the hungry, of wonderful times to come. Those who lead the country into the abyss, call ruling difficult, for ordinary folk.
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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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He who speaks of enemies , himself is the enemy.
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As regards obstacles, the shortest distance between two points can be a curve.
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Young Alexander conquered India. He alone? Caesar beat the Gauls. Was there not even a cook in his army? Philip of Spain wept as his fleet was sunk and destroyed. Were there no other tears? Frederick the Great triumphed in the Seven Years War. Who Triumphed with him?
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Sometimes it’s more important to be human, than to have good taste.
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Grub first, then ethics.
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Some party hack decreed that the people had lost the government’s confidence and could only regain it with redoubled effort. If that is the case, would it not be simpler, If the government simply dissolved the people And elected another?
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Love is also like a coconut which is good while it is fresh, but you have to spit it out when the juice is gone, what’s left tastes bitter.
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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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The mobilization order is already written out. Every day, to earn my daily bread I go to the market where lies are bought Hopefully I take up my place among the sellers.
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One can describe the world of today to the people of today only if one describes it as capable of alteration.
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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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Though the rich of this earth find no difficulty in creating misery, they can’t bear to see it.
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Even the most blockheaded bureaucrat, provided he loves peace, is a greater lover of the arts than any so-called art-lover who loves the arts of war.
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…it is simplicity that is difficult to make.
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All the gang of those who rule us Hope our quarrels never stop Helping them to split and fool us So they can remain on top.
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Art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it.
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What’s breaking into a bank compared with founding a bank?
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Intelligence is not to make no mistakes, but quickly to see how to make them good.
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There are a few things that’ll move people to pity, a few, but the trouble is, when they’ve been used several times, they no longer work.
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You can make a fresh start with your final breath.
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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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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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The finest plans are always ruined by the littleness of those who ought to carry them out, for emperor himself can actually be nothing.
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