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.
Do you ever suddenly find it strange to be yourself?
Do you think that God will punish them for not practicing a religion which he did not reveal to them?
What am I now, Alai?" "Still good." "At what?" "At--anything. There's a million soldiers who'd follow you to the end of the universe." "I don't want to go to the end of the universe." "So where do you want to go? They'll follow you." I want to go home, thought Ender, but I don't know where it is.
The capacity for getting along with our neighbor depends to a large extent on the capacity for getting along with ourselves. The self-respecting individual will try to be as tolerant of his neighbor's shortcomings as he is of his own.
What is important is the moment of opening a life and feeling it touch--with an electric hiss and cry--this speckled mineral sphere, our present world.
There is, in fact, nothing about religious opinions that entitles them to any more respect than other opinions get. On the contrary, they tend to be noticeably silly.
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