black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

Art is not a mirror. Art is a hammer.

Bertolt Brecht

The shrill voices of those who give orders Are full of fear like the squeakings of Piglets awaiting the butcher’s knife, as their fat arses Sweat with anxiety in their office chairs…. Fear rules not only those who are ruled, but The rulers too.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Knives Order Sweat
You have to attack once the truth is too weak to defend itself.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Defend Truth Weak
Terrible is the temptation to be good.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Be Good Temptation Terrible
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.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Government People War
Let nothing be called natural In an age of bloody confusion, Ordered disorder, planned caprice, And dehumanized humanity, lest all things Be held unalterable!
BERTOLT BRECHT

Confusion Humanity Nature
He who fights, can lose. He who doesn’t fight, has already lost.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Fighting Loses Lost
Recently my fingers have developed a prejudice against comparatives. They all follow this pattern: a squirrel is smaller than a tree; a bird is more musical than a tree.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Bird Perspective Squirrels
What’s breaking into a bank compared with founding a bank?
BERTOLT BRECHT

Banking Breaking Literature Silence
Their peace and their war Are like wind and storm. War grows from their peace.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Peace Storm War Wind
Sometimes it’s more important to be human, than to have good taste.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Important Sometimes Taste
Spring is noticed, if at all By people sitting in railway trains.
BERTOLT BRECHT

People Sitting Spring
In the dark times Will there also be singing? Yes, there will also be singing. About the dark times.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Dark Inspirational Singing
If you don’t have fun, you don’t have a show.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Fun Inspirational Shows
Don’t be afraid of death so much as an inadequate life.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Anticipation Death Life
We often do not know ourselves the grounds On which we act, though plain to others.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Ground Knows Others Ourselves
No one can be good for long if goodness is not in demand.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Demand Literature Long
The finest plans are always ruined by the littleness of those who ought to carry them out, for emperor himself can actually be nothing.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Emperor Finest Ruined
General, man is very useful. He can fly and he can kill. But he has one defect: He can think.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Defect Men Thinking
Hungry man, reach for the book: it is a weapon.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Book Men Weapons
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.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Change Nothing Reality Representation
One forgets too easily the difference between a man and his image, and that there is none between the sound of his voice on the screen and in real life.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Men Real Screen Voice
There must always be some who are brighter and some who are stupider, the latter make up for it by being better workers.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Latter Stupidity Workers
Nowadays, anyone who wishes to combat lies and ignorance and to write the truth must overcome at least five difficulties.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Lying Running Writing
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?
BERTOLT BRECHT

Army War Years
There are men who struggle for a day and they are good. There are men who struggle for a year and they are better. There are men who struggle many years, and they are better still. But there are those who struggle all their lives: These are the indispensable ones.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Men Struggle Years
Even hatred of vileness Distorts a mans features.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Features Hatred
The man who laughs has simply not yet had the terrible news.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Laughing Laughter Men

Art is not a mirror. Art is a hammer.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

Art is not a mirror. Art is a hammer.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Bertolt Brecht Quotes