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.
BERTOLT BRECHTEven 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.
More Bertolt Brecht Quotes
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I don’t like where I’m going and I don’t like where I’ve been. Why am I in a hurry?
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With drooping shoulders The majority sit hunched, their foreheads furrowed like Stony ground that has been repeatedly ploughed-up to no purpose.
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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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Poverty makes you wise but it’s a curse.
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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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What’s a joy to the one is a nightmare to the other.
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The man who laughs has simply not yet had the terrible news.
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Don’t be afraid of death so much as an inadequate life.
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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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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.
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Grub first, then ethics.
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It is not enough to demand insight and informative images of reality from the theater. Our theater must stimulate a desire for understanding, a delight in changing reality.
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The human race tends to remember the abuses to which it has been subjected rather than the endearments. What’s left of kisses? Wounds, however, leave scars.
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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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Today every invention is received with a cry of triumph which soon turns into a cry of fear.
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When evil-doing comes like falling rain, nobody calls out “stop!” 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.
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None will improve your lot If you yourself do not.
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Suppose they gave a war, and nobody came? Why then, the war would come to you!
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All artforms are in the service of the greatest of all arts: the art of living.
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Fearful is the seductive power of goodness.
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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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Eats first, morals after.
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Life is short and so is money.
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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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Little changes are the enemies of great changes.
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Mixing one’s wines may be a mistake, but old and new wisdom mix admirably.
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