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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.

Bertolt Brecht

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.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Condition Example Made Realist
When something seems ‘the most obvious thing in the world’ it means that any attempt to understand the world has been given up.
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Mean World
The right to happiness is fundamental; men live so little time and die alone.
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Alone Happiness Joy Men
What kind of times are they, when A talk about trees is almost a crime Because it implies silence about so many horrors?
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Kind Silence Tree
Little changes are the enemies of great changes.
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Change Enemy Littles
Who does Not Know the Truth, is simply a Fool… Yet who Knows the Truth and Calls it a Lie, is a Criminal.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Criminals Doe Lying
Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are.
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Change Moving Stay Strong
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.
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Knives Order Sweat
I am a playwright. I show What I have seen. In the man markets I have seen how men are traded. That I show, I, the playwright.
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Men Show Traded
When the leaders speak of peace, the common folk know war is coming.
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Common Folk Leader War
The righteous one has no sense of humor.
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Humor One Righteous Sense
Spring is noticed, if at all By people sitting in railway trains.
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People Sitting Spring
Come in, dear wind, and be our guest You too have neither home nor rest.
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Guest Home Wind
You may proclaim, good sirs, your fine philosophy But till you feed us, right and wrong can wait!
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May Philosophy Waiting
The defeats and victories of the fellows at the top aren’t always defeats and victories for the fellows at the bottom.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Defeat Sunset Victory
Don’t accept the habitual as a natural thing. In times of disorder, of organized confusion, of de-humanized humanity, nothing should seem natural. Nothing should seem impossible to change.
BERTOLT BRECHT

Confusion Humanity Impossible

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 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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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