Peachum [To the audience]: Something new - that's what we must have. My business is too difficult. You see, my business is trying to arouse human pity. There...

Peachum [To the audience]: Something new - that's what we must have. My business is too difficult. You see, 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. Human beings have the horrid capacity of being able to make themselves heartless at will. 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 be only a threepenny bit. And if he sees him a third time, he'll hand him over cold-bloodedly to the police. It's the same with these spiritual weapons.

line from The Threepenny Opera, Act I, Scene 1 by Bertolt Brecht (1928)
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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