On thinking about Hell, I gather My brother Shelley found it was a place Much like the city of London.
BERTOLT BRECHTTheir peace and their war Are like wind and storm. War grows from their peace.
More Bertolt Brecht Quotes
-
-
Bank robbery is an initiative of amateurs. True professionals establish a bank.
BERTOLT BRECHT -
Go make yourself a plan And be a shining light. Then make yourself a second plan, For neither will come right.
BERTOLT BRECHT -
No one can be good for long if goodness is not in demand.
BERTOLT BRECHT -
The fanatics for progress often have too little appreciation of the existing.
BERTOLT BRECHT -
The first time it was reported that our friends were being butchered there was a cry of horror. Then a hundred were butchered. But when a thousand were butchered and there was no end to the butchery, a blanket of silence spread.
BERTOLT BRECHT -
Art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it.
BERTOLT BRECHT -
It’s never too late for those whose time has come.
BERTOLT BRECHT -
General, man is very useful. He can fly and he can kill. But he has one defect: He can think.
BERTOLT BRECHT -
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 -
Terrible is the temptation to be good.
BERTOLT BRECHT -
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?
BERTOLT BRECHT -
What they could do with ’round here is a good war. What else can you expect with peace running wild all over the place? You know what the trouble with peace is? No organization.
BERTOLT BRECHT -
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.
BERTOLT BRECHT -
Each of us is the strongest one in his or her own skin. Characteristics should take off their hats to one another, instead of spitting in each other’s faces.
BERTOLT BRECHT -
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 -
It’s all right to hesitate if you then go ahead.
BERTOLT BRECHT -
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.
BERTOLT BRECHT -
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.
BERTOLT BRECHT -
If you fight you might lose, if you don’t you have already lost.
BERTOLT BRECHT -
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.
BERTOLT BRECHT -
Temptation to behave is terrible.
BERTOLT BRECHT -
I’m in good form, taking no interest in things, neglecting clothes, meals, company, and feeling calm and stable as I write.
BERTOLT BRECHT -
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.
BERTOLT BRECHT -
You have to attack once the truth is too weak to defend itself.
BERTOLT BRECHT -
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 -
People cannot remain good unless good is expected of them.
BERTOLT BRECHT