Bertolt Brecht quotes - page 2

Art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it. (Bertolt Brecht)
In the dark times Will there also be singing? Yes, there will also be singing About the dark times.
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
Spring is noticed, if at all By people sitting in railway trains.
Bertolt Brecht
All the gang of those who rule us Hope our quarrels never stop Helping them to split and fool us So they can remain on top.
Bertolt Brecht
Come in, dear wind, and be our guest You too have neither home nor rest.
Bertolt Brecht
Little changes are the enemies of great changes.
Bertolt Brecht
A man who strains himself on the stage is bound, if he is any good, to strain all the people sitting in the stalls.
Bertolt Brecht
Oh why do we not say the important things, it would be so easy, and we are damned because we do not.
Bertolt Brecht
If art reflects life, it does so with special mirrors.
Bertolt Brecht
Of 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. (Bertolt Brecht)
The more innocent they are, the more they deserve to be shot.
Bertolt Brecht
Sometimes I have visions of myself driving through hell, selling sulphur and brimstone, or through heaven peddling refreshments to the roaming souls. If me and the children I've got left could find a place where there's no shooting, I wouldn't mind a few years of peace and quiet.
Bertolt Brecht
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.
Bertolt Brecht
Their peace and their war Are like wind and storm. War grows from their peace.
Bertolt Brecht
The aim of science is not to open the door to infinite wisdom, but to set some limit on infinite error.
Bertolt Brecht
For the task assigned them Men aren't smart enough or sly Any rogue can blind them With a clever lie.
Bertolt Brecht
You may proclaim, good sirs, your fine philosophy But till you feed us, right and wrong can wait!
Bertolt Brecht
The rain Never falls upwards. When the wound Stops hurting What hurts is The scar.
Bertolt Brecht
General, man is very useful. He can fly and he can kill. But he has one defect: He can think.
Bertolt Brecht
The headlong stream is termed violent But the river bed hemming it in is Termed violent by no one. (Bertolt Brecht)
With drooping shoulders The majority sit hunched, their foreheads furrowed like Stony ground that has been repeatedly ploughed-up to no purpose.
Bertolt Brecht
If you fight you might lose, if you don't you have already lost.
Bertolt Brecht
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.
Bertolt Brecht
Do not rejoice in his defeat, you men.For though the bastard is dead, the bitch that bore him is again in heat.
Bertolt Brecht