Bertolt Brecht - Man Quotes

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Alas, we
Who wished to lay the foundations of kindness, Could not ourselves be kind.
But you, when at last it comes to pass That man can help his fellow man,
Do not judge us Too harshly.

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

Bertolt Brecht
My business is too difficult. My business is trying to arouse human pity. There are 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. So it happens, for instance, that a man who sees another man on the street corner with only a stump for an arm will be so shocked the first time that he'll give him sixpence. But the second time it'll only be a threepenny bit. And if he sees him a third time, he'll hand him over cold-bloodedly to the police.

Bertolt Brecht
For what's the use of talking with a man who has a disease and thinks about the stars?

Bertolt Brecht
General, man is very useful.
He can fly and he can kill.
But he has one defect:
He can think.

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
Truly, I live in dark times!
The guileless word is folly. A smooth forehead
Suggests insensitivity. The man who laughs
Has simply not yet had
The terrible news.

Bertolt Brecht
Without trampling down twelve others
You cannot help one poor man.

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. General, your bomber is powerful. It flies faster than a storm and carries more than an elephant. But it has one defect: It needs a mechanic. General, man is very useful. He can fly and he can kill. But he has one defect: He can think.

Bertolt Brecht
A man who sees another man on the street corner with only a stump for an arm will be so shocked the first time he'll give him sixpence. But the second time it'll only be a threepenny bit. And if he sees him a third time, he'll have him cold-bloodedly handed over to the police.

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
I am a playwright. I show What I have seen. In the man markets I have seen how men are traded. That I show, I, the playwright.

Bertolt Brecht
Unhappiness doesn't grow on the chest like leprosy. Poverty won't fall off the roof like a loose tile, no; poverty and unhappiness are man's doing.

Bertolt Brecht