“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.”

Peachum in Act 1, scene 1, pp. 5-6
The Threepenny Opera (1928)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "My business is too difficult. My business is trying to arouse human pity. There are few things that'll move people to p…" by Bertolt Brecht?

Bertolt Brecht102

German poet, playwright, theatre director 1898–1956

Related quotes

“MAN: Kick him-he'll forgive you. Flatter him-he may or may not see through you. But ignore him and he'll hate you”

Idries Shah (1924–1996) writer and Sufi teacher

“We heard the shots in the night
But nobody knew next day what the trouble was
And a man must go to his work.
So I didn't see him
For three days, then, and me near out of my mind
And all the patrols on the streets with their dirty guns
And when he came back, he looked drunk, and the blood was on him.”

Stephen Vincent Benét (1898–1943) poet, short story writer, novelist

Source: Litany for Dictatorships (1935)

“When I was a kid, my parents had a 900-pound television on top of a TV tray. My dad's theory was, "Let him pull it on his head a few times, he'll learn. You wanna put a penny in the light socket? Try that out. OHH! Hurt like hell, didn't it? Don't do that no more."”

Jeff Foxworthy (1958) American stand-up comedian

You Might Be a Redneck If… (1993)

“I calculated the amount of time I spent with my father during my entire life… the total amount of time I had with him, if you add up the hours, was about two months. My father was a busy man… we had very few opportunities to really sit down and talk as father and son.”

Reza Pahlavi (1960) Last crown prince of the former Imperial State of Iran

As quoted in Marvin Zonis (1991), Majestic Failure: The Fall of the Shah, p. 57.
Attributed

“By the time he's 31, he'll never have to work another day unless he wants to.”

Bernie Parent (1945) Canadian ice hockey player

Quoted in Kevin Shea, "One on One with Bernie Parent," http://www.legendsofhockey.net/html/spot_oneononep198403.htm Legends of Hockey.net (2005-11-07) <br class="br">About

“Every time a man expects, as he says, his money to work for him, he is expecting other people to work for him.”

Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957) English crime writer, playwright, essayist and Christian writer

Essays, The Other Six Deadly Sins (1941)

“But you must give him some sign, some sign that you love him… or he'll never be a man. All his life he'll feel guilty and alone unless you release him.”

John Steinbeck book East of Eden

Source: East of Eden

“You know, it's quite all right to give the underdog a hand, but only one hand. Keep the other hand on your pistol - or he'll try to eat the one you gave him!”

H. Beam Piper (1904–1964) American science fiction writer

A Slave is a Slave (1962)

“Another busy day! So let’s to business. The clock moves forward; wasted time is life defeated!”

Jack Vance book To Live Forever

Source: To Live Forever (1956), Chapter VIII, section 3

“That state is a state of Slavery in which a man does what he likes to do in his spare time and in his working time that which is required of him. This state can only exist when what a man likes to do is to please himself. ¶ That state is a state of Freedom in which a man does what he likes to do in his working time and in his spare time that which is required of him. This state can only exist when what a man likes to do is to please God.”

Eric Gill (1882–1940) British artist

Art Nonsense and Other Essays (1929), published by Cassell; quoted in Eric Gill: Man of Flesh and Spirit by Malcolm Yorke, published by Tauris Parke ISBN 1-86064-584-4, p. 49

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Bertolt Brecht102

Related quotes

Related topics