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

Polly Peachum, in "The Song of the Futility of All Human Endeavor"; Act 3, scene 1, p. 75
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 "For the task assigned them Men aren't smart enough or sly Any rogue can blind them With a clever lie." by Bertolt Brecht?
Bertolt Brecht photo
Bertolt Brecht 102
German poet, playwright, theatre director 1898–1956

Related quotes

Ronald Reagan photo

“I'm not smart enough to lie.”

Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)

Response when asked what qualified him to be President, as quoted in Ronald Reagan : The Power of Conviction and the Success of His Presidency (2003) by Peter J. Wallison, p. 167
Post-presidency (1989–2004)

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry photo
Sylvia Day photo
John Gay photo

“Sure men were born to lie, and women to believe them!”

John Gay (1685–1732) English poet and playwright

Lucy, Act II, sc. xiii
The Beggar's Opera (1728)

Henri-Frédéric Amiel photo

“Clever men will recognize and tolerate nothing but cleverness; every authority rouses their ridicule, every superstition amuses them, every convention moves them to contradiction. Only force finds favor in their eyes, and they have no toleration for anything that is not purely natural and spontaneous. And yet ten clever men are not worth one man of talent, nor ten men of talent worth one man of genius.”

Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1821–1881) Swiss philosopher and poet

16 February 1868
Journal Intime (1882), Journal entries
Context: Clever men will recognize and tolerate nothing but cleverness; every authority rouses their ridicule, every superstition amuses them, every convention moves them to contradiction. Only force finds favor in their eyes, and they have no toleration for anything that is not purely natural and spontaneous. And yet ten clever men are not worth one man of talent, nor ten men of talent worth one man of genius. And in the individual, feeling is more than cleverness, reason is worth as much as feeling, and conscience has it over reason. If, then, the clever man is not mockable, he may at least be neither loved, nor considered, nor esteemed. He may make himself feared, it is true, and force others to respect his independence; but this negative advantage, which is the result of a negative superiority, brings no happiness with it. Cleverness is serviceable for everything, sufficient for nothing.

Orson Scott Card photo

“It (i. e., advertising) was like horoscopes—enough blind stabs and some of them are bound to strike a target.”

Page 185
Ender's Game series, First Meetings in the Enderverse (2003), Investment Counselor

Kenneth Grahame photo
Livy photo

“Fortune blinds men when she does not wish them to withstand the violence of her onslaughts.”

Livy (-59–17 BC) Roman historian

Book V, sec. 37
History of Rome

L. Ron Hubbard photo

“THE ONLY WAY YOU CAN CONTROL PEOPLE IS TO LIE TO THEM. You can write that down in your book in great big letters. The only way you can control anybody is to lie to them.”

L. Ron Hubbard (1911–1986) American science fiction author, philosopher, cult leader, and the founder of the Church of Scientology

Lecture: "Off the Time Track" (June 1952) as quoted in Journal of Scientology issue 18-G, reprinted in Technical Volumes of Dianetics & Scientology Vol. 1, p. 418.

Philip Pullman photo

Related topics