Art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it.
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.
Though the rich of this earth find no difficulty in creating misery, they can’t bear to see it.
People cannot remain good unless good is expected of them.
It is not enough to demand insight and informative images of reality from the theater. Our theater must stimulate a desire for understanding, a delight in changing reality.
There are many elements to a campaign. Leadership is number one. Everything else is number two.
The law was made for one thing alone, for the exploitation of those who don’t understand it, or are prevented by naked misery from obeying it.
The fanatics for progress often have too little appreciation of the existing.
One cannot be arraigned for declaring a war, which every ruler has to do once in a while, but only for running a war badly.
Terrible is the temptation to be good.
Things take indeed a wondrous turn When learned men do stoop to learn.
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.
There must always be some who are brighter and some who are stupider, the latter make up for it by being better workers.
What rapture, oh, it is to know A good thing when you see it And having seen a good thing, oh, What rapture ’tis to flee it.
We often do not know ourselves the grounds On which we act, though plain to others.
Never believe on faith, see for yourself! What you yourself don’t learn you don’t know.
When the praying does no good, insurance does help.
Even hatred of vileness Distorts a mans features.
There are times when you have to choose between being human and having good taste.
The defeats and victories of the fellows at the top aren’t always defeats and victories for the fellows at the bottom.
If art reflects life, it does so with special mirrors.