diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/download_strategy.rb b/Library/Homebrew/download_strategy.rb
index 8cbb4cc5e1..e2a50b1d34 100644
--- a/Library/Homebrew/download_strategy.rb
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/download_strategy.rb
@@ -30,6 +30,26 @@ class AbstractDownloadStrategy
     end
     @unique_token="#{name}-#{version}" unless name.to_s.empty? or name == '__UNKNOWN__'
   end
+
+  def expand_safe_system_args args
+    args.each_with_index do |arg, ii|
+      if arg.is_a? Hash
+        unless ARGV.verbose?
+          args[ii] = arg[:quiet_flag]
+        else
+          args.delete_at ii
+        end
+        return args
+      end
+    end
+    # 2 as default because commands are eg. svn up, git pull
+    args.insert(2, '-q') unless ARGV.verbose?
+    return args
+  end
+
+  def quiet_safe_system *args
+    safe_system *expand_safe_system_args(args)
+  end
 end
 
 class CurlDownloadStrategy <AbstractDownloadStrategy
@@ -59,7 +79,7 @@ class CurlDownloadStrategy <AbstractDownloadStrategy
       # get the first four bytes
       case f.read(4)
       when /^PK\003\004/ # .zip archive
-        safe_system '/usr/bin/unzip', '-qq', @dl
+        quiet_safe_system '/usr/bin/unzip', {:quiet_flag => '-qq'}, @dl
         chdir
       when /^\037\213/, /^BZh/ # gzip/bz2 compressed
         # TODO check if it's really a tar archive
@@ -113,9 +133,7 @@ class SubversionDownloadStrategy <AbstractDownloadStrategy
     ohai "Checking out #{@url}"
     @co=HOMEBREW_CACHE+@unique_token
     unless @co.exist?
-      args = [svn, 'checkout', @url, @co]
-      args << '-q' unless ARGV.verbose?
-      safe_system *args
+      quiet_safe_system svn, 'checkout', @url, @co
     else
       # TODO svn up?
       puts "Repository already checked out"
@@ -126,8 +144,7 @@ class SubversionDownloadStrategy <AbstractDownloadStrategy
     # Force the export, since the target directory will already exist
     args = [svn, 'export', '--force', @co, Dir.pwd]
     args << '-r' << @ref if @spec == :revision and @ref
-    args << '-q' unless ARGV.verbose?
-    safe_system *args
+    quiet_safe_system *args
   end
 
   # Override this method in a DownloadStrategy to force the use of a non-
@@ -143,7 +160,7 @@ class GitDownloadStrategy <AbstractDownloadStrategy
     ohai "Cloning #{@url}"
     @clone=HOMEBREW_CACHE+@unique_token
     unless @clone.exist?
-      safe_system 'git', 'clone', @url, @clone
+      quiet_safe_system 'git', 'clone', @url, @clone
     else
       # TODO git pull?
       puts "Repository already cloned to #{@clone}"
@@ -157,9 +174,9 @@ class GitDownloadStrategy <AbstractDownloadStrategy
         ohai "Checking out #{@spec} #{@ref}"
         case @spec
         when :branch
-          nostdout { safe_system 'git', 'checkout', "origin/#{@ref}" }
+          nostdout { quiet_safe_system 'git', 'checkout', "origin/#{@ref}" }
         when :tag
-          nostdout { safe_system 'git', 'checkout', @ref }
+          nostdout { quiet_safe_system 'git', 'checkout', @ref }
         end
       end
       # http://stackoverflow.com/questions/160608/how-to-do-a-git-export-like-svn-export