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.
BERTOLT BRECHTAll artforms are in the service of the greatest of all arts: the art of living.
More Bertolt Brecht Quotes
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The fanatics for progress often have too little appreciation of the existing.
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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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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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Love is the wish to give, not to receive.
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Whenever there are great virtues, it’s a sure sign something’s wrong.
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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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First the pork chops, then morality
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General, your tank is a powerful vehicle It smashes down forests and crushes a hundred men. But it has one defect: It needs a driver.
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Impact lies in the vicinity of mistakes.
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What rapture, oh, it is to know A good thing when you see it And having seen a good thing, oh, What rapture ’tis to flee it.
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What’s a joy to the one is a nightmare to the other.
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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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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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I was called up in the war and sent to a hospital. I dressed wounds, applied iodine, gave enemas, did blood transfusions. If the doctor ordered: “Brecht, amputate a leg!”, I would reply, “Certainly, Your Excellency!”, and cut off the leg. If I was told, “Perform a trepanning!”
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Here today we huddle tight As the darkest heathens might The snow falls chilly on our skin The snow is forcing its way in. Hush, snow, come in with us to dwell: We were thrown out by Heaven as well.
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You don’t need to pray to God any more when there are storms in the sky, but you do have to be insured.
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What a miserable thing life is: you’re in clover; only the clover isn’t good enough.
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There are many elements to a campaign. Leadership is number one. Everything else is number two.
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When the praying does no good, insurance does help.
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The rain Never falls upwards. When the wound Stops hurting What hurts is The scar.
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Their peace and their war Are like wind and storm. War grows from their peace.
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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.
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The man who laughs has simply not yet had the terrible news.
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Right is its own defense.
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Spring is noticed, if at all By people sitting in railway trains.
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From the cradle to the coffin underwear comes first.
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