Bertolt Brecht quotes - page 4

Whenever there are great virtues, it's a sure sign something's wrong. (Bertolt Brecht)
Don't tell me peace has broken out.
Bertolt Brecht
People who understand everything get no stories.
Bertolt Brecht
But something's missing.
Bertolt Brecht
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
There are many elements to a campaign. Leadership is number one. Everything else is number two.
Bertolt Brecht
And the shark he has his teeth and There they are for all to see And Macheath he has his knife but No one knows where it may be.
Bertolt Brecht
For what's the use of talking with a man who has a disease and thinks about the stars?
Bertolt Brecht
This is the year which people will talk about This is the year which people will be silent about.The old see the young die. The foolish see the wise die.The earth no longer produces, it devours. The sky hurls down no rain, only iron.
Bertolt Brecht
The worst illiterate is the political illiterate, he doesn't hear, doesn't speak, nor participates in the political events. He doesn't know the cost of life, the price of the bean, of the fish, of the flour, of the rent, of the shoes and of the medicine, all depends on political decisions. The political illiterate is so stupid that he is proud and swells his chest saying that he hates politics. The imbecile doesn't know that, from his political ignorance is born the prostitute, the abandoned child, and the worst thieves of all, the bad politician, corrupted and flunky of the national and multinational companies.
Bertolt Brecht
Ah, what an age it is When to speak of trees is almost a crime For it is a kind of silence about injustice! (Bertolt Brecht)
If you join the rat race - you're in the race of rats.
Bertolt Brecht
What if they gave a war and no one came? Then the war will come to you.
Bertolt Brecht
Mr. Wurlitzer, I am now in a position to receive your organ.
Bertolt Brecht
On golden chairs Sitting at ease, you paid for the songs which we chanted To those less lucky. You paid us for drying their tears And for comforting all those whom you had wounded.
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
Marie Farrar: month of birth, April Died in the Meissen penitentiary An unwed mother, judged by the law, she will Show you how all that lives, lives frailly. You who bear your sons in laundered linen sheets And call your pregnancies a "blessed" state Should never damn the outcast and the weak: Her sin was heavy, but her suffering great. Therefore, I beg, make not your anger manifest For all that lives needs help from all the rest.
Bertolt Brecht
The law is simply and solely made for the exploitation of those who do not understand it or of those who, for naked need, cannot obey it.
Bertolt Brecht
High above the lake a bomber flies. From the rowing boats Children look up, women, an old man. From a distance They appear like young starlings, their beaks Wide open for food.
Bertolt Brecht
First comes a full stomach, then comes ethics.
Bertolt Brecht
Play your part creatively in all the struggles Of men of your time, thereby Helping, with the seriousness of study and the cheerfulness of knowledge To turn the struggle into common experience and Justice into a passion. (Bertolt Brecht)
People will observe you to see How well you have observed. The man who only observes himself however never gains Knowledge of men. He is too anxious To hide himself from himself. And nobody is Cleverer than he himself is.
Bertolt Brecht
And when she was finished they laid her in earth Flowers growing, butterflies juggling over her... She, so light, barely pressed the earth down How much pain it took to make her as light as that!
Bertolt Brecht
The main objective is to learn to think crudely. Crude thinking is the great one's thinking.
Bertolt Brecht
Events cast long shadows before. One such event would be a war. But how are shadows to be seen When total darkness fills the screen?
Bertolt Brecht