The mill wheel turns, it turns forever, though what is uppermost remains not so.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the permanence of time and change, suggesting that while time continues to flow, the surface events may vary.
Bertolt Brecht's quote, 'The mill wheel turns, it turns forever, though what is uppermost remains not so,' highlights the relentless progression of time. The metaphor of a mill wheel indicates that while time constantly moves forward, the thoughts and concerns that occupy people's minds are often transient and subject to change, reflecting a deeper philosophical observation about the nature of reality and human perception.
In practice
During a graduation speech, to remind students about the ongoing process of life and change.
The shrill voices of those who give orders Are full of fear like the squeakings of Piglets awaiting the butcher's knife, as their fat arses Sweat with anxiety in their office chairs.... Fear rules not only those who are ruled, but The rulers too.
We need a type of theatre which not only releases the feelings, insights and impulses possible within the particular historical field of human relations in which the action takes place, but employs and encourages those thoughts and feelings which help transform the field itself.
We attacked a foreign people and treated them like rebels. As you know, it's all right to treat barbarians barbarically. It's the desire to be barbaric that makes governments call their enemies barbarians.
War is like love, it always finds a way.
Art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it.
Recently my fingers have developed a prejudice against comparatives. They all follow this pattern: a squirrel is smaller than a tree; a bird is more musical than a tree. Each of us is the strongest one in his or her own skin. Characteristics should take off their hats to one another, instead of spitting in each other's faces.
As a man, casting off worn out garments taketh new ones, so the dweller in the body, entereth into ones that are new.
Resolved ... that it would be a dangerous delusion were a confidence in the men of our choice to silence our fears for the safety of our rights: that confidence is everywhere the parent of despotism - free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence.
The control of the production of wealth is the control of human life itself.
There is a daily discussion with our servants about the price of food and the number of loaves: a conference with our presbyters to consider the sins of our people is a very rare occurrence.
If we do not live and manifest in our lives what we realize in our deepest moments of revelation, then we are living a split life.
The goal of life is not the earning of money, but the service of God.p.114
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