Bertolt Brecht Quotes - Page 6

Whenever there are great virtues, it's a sure sign something's wrong.

We often do not know ourselves the grounds On which we act, though plain to others.

Only bad generals need heroes.

For the task assigned them Men aren't smart enough or sly Any rogue can blind them With a clever lie.

Don't tell me peace has broken out.

The right to happiness is fundamental; men live so little time and die alone.

Sometimes it's more important to be human, than to have good taste.

Today every invention is received with a cry of triumph which soon turns into a cry of fear.

You may proclaim, good sirs, your fine philosophy But till you feed us, right and wrong can wait!

With drooping shoulders The majority sit hunched, their foreheads furrowed like Stony ground that has been repeatedly ploughed-up to no purpose.

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!" I opened the man's skull and messed about with his brains. I saw how they patched fellows up, so as to cart them back to the Front as quickly as they could.

Who built the seven gates of Thebes? In the books are listed the names of kings. Did the kings heave up the building blocks?

For the villainy of the world is great, and a man has to run his legs off to keep them from being stolen out fom underneath him.

The headlong stream is termed violent But the river bed hemming it in is Termed violent by no one.

What a miserable thing life is: you're in clover; only the clover isn't good enough.

Those who have had no share in the good fortunes of the mighty Often have a share in their misfortunes.

One must live well to know what living is.

Who struggles can fail. Who doesn't struggle has already failed!

For time flows on, and if it did not, it would be a bad prospect for those who do not sit at golden tables. Methods become exhausted; stimuli no longer work. New problems appear and demand new methods. 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.

For once you must try not to shirk the facts: mankind is kept alive by bestial acts.

Art and science coincide insofar as both aim to improve the lives of men and women. The latter normally concerns itself with profit, the former with pleasure. In the coming age, art will fashion our entertainment out of new means of productivity in ways that will simultaneously enhance our profit and maximize our pleasure.

Who has good luck is good, Who has bad luck is bad.

Pleasures First look from morning's window The rediscovered book Fascinated faces Snow, the change of the seasons The newspaper The dog Dialectics Showering, swimming Old music Comfortable shoes Comprehension New music Writing, planting Traveling Singing Being friendly

Boy Meets Girl, So What?

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.