Terrible is the temptation to be good.
BERTOLT BRECHTOf 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.
More Bertolt Brecht Quotes
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The man who laughs has simply not yet had the terrible news.
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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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General, your bomber is powerful. It flies faster than a storm and carries more than an elephant. But it has one defect: It needs a mechanic. General, man is very useful. He can fly and he can kill. But he has one defect: He can think.
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For the task assigned them Men aren’t smart enough or sly Any rogue can blind them With a clever lie.
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It was never decreed that a god mustn’t pay hotel bills.
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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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From the start it has been the theatre’s business to entertain people … it needs no other passport than fun.
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Oh why do we not say the important things, it would be so easy, and we are damned because we do not.
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What’s a joy to the one is a nightmare to the other.
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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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We often do not know ourselves the grounds On which we act, though plain to others.
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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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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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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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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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