The collection / 58 fragments

The living archive

Passages, proverbs, and questions carried across the ages.

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01Undated

Hungry man, reach for the book: it is a weapon.

Bertolt Brecht / quote

02Undated

Don’t be afraid of death so much as an inadequate life.

Bertolt Brecht / quote

03Undated

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

Bertolt Brecht / quote

04Undated

Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are.

Bertolt Brecht / quote

05Undated

Carpenter: "Call Shen Te, someone! She's good!"Shui Ta: "Certainly. She's ruined.

Bertolt Brecht / quote

06Undated

Intelligence is not to make no mistakes, but quickly to see how to make them good.

Bertolt Brecht / quote

07Undated

Such a lot is won when even a single man gets to his feet and says No

Bertolt Brecht / quote

08Undated

Hatred of oppression still distorts the features, Anger at injustice still makes voices raised and ugly. Oh we, who wished to lay for the foundations for peace and friendliness,Could never be friendly ourselves.

Bertolt Brecht / quote

09Undated

First of all, they came to take the gypsiesand I was happy because they pilfered.Then they came to take the Jews and I said nothing, because they were unpleasant to me.Then they came to take homosexuals,and I was relieved, because they were annoying me.Then they came to take the Communists,and I said nothing because I was not a Communist.One day they came to take me,and there was nobody left to protest.Bertold Brecht, inspired by Emil Gustav Friedrich Martin Niemöller

Bertolt Brecht / quote

10Undated

The mill wheel turns it turns forever though what is uppermost remains not so.

Bertolt Brecht / quote

11Undated

It isn't important to come out on top. What matters is to come out alive.

Bertolt Brecht / quote

12Undated

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

Bertolt Brecht / quote

13Undated

Fearful is the seductive power of goodness.

Bertolt Brecht / quote

14Undated

What's joy to one is a nightmare to the other.

Bertolt Brecht / quote

15Undated

Everyone needs help from everyone.

Bertolt Brecht / quote

16Undated

People are too durable that's their main trouble. They can do too much to themselves they last too long.

Bertolt Brecht / quote

17Undated

Poverty makes you sad as well as wise.

Bertolt Brecht / quote

18Undated

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

Bertolt Brecht / quote

19Undated

What happens to the hole when the cheese is gone?

Bertolt Brecht / quote

20Undated

It isn't important to come out on top what matters is to be the one who comes out alive.

Bertolt Brecht / quote

21Undated

What's a joy to the one is a nightmare to the other.

Bertolt Brecht / quote

22Undated

People remain what they are even when their faces fall to pieces.

Bertolt Brecht / quote

23Undated

Great sport begins at a point where it has ceased to be healthy.

Bertolt Brecht / quote

24Undated

When praying does no good insurance does help.

Bertolt Brecht / quote