German playwright & poet (1898-1956)
The main objective is to learn to think crudely. Crude thinking is the great one's thinking.
BERTOLT BRECHT
Dreigroschenroman
What they could use around here is a good war. What else can you expect with peace running wild all over the place? You know what the trouble with peace is? No organization. And when do you get organization? In a war. Peace is one big waste of equipment. Anything goes, no one gives a damn. See the way they eat? Cheese on pumpernickel, bacon on the cheese? Disgusting! How many horses have they got in this town? How many young men? Nobody knows! They haven't bothered to count 'em! That's peace for you! I've been in places where they haven't had a war for seventy years and you know what? The people haven't even been given names! They don't know who they are! It takes a war to fix that. In a war, everyone registers, everyone's name's on a list. Their shoes are stacked, their corn's in the bag, you count it all up -- cattle, men, et cetera -- and you take it away! That's the story: no organization, no war!
BERTOLT BRECHT
Mother Courage
Mankind is kept alive by bestial acts.
BERTOLT BRECHT
The Threepenny Opera
The world of knowledge takes a crazy turn
When teachers themselves are taught to learn.
BERTOLT BRECHT
Life of Galileo
All the gang of those who rule us
Hope our quarrels never stop
Helping them to split and fool us
So they can remain on top.
BERTOLT BRECHT
"Solidarity Song"
Always the victor writes the history of the vanquished. He who beats distorts the faces of the beaten. The weaker depart from this world and the lies remain.
BERTOLT BRECHT
The Trial of Lucullus
You don't need to pray to God any more when there are storms in the sky, but you do have to be insured.
BERTOLT BRECHT
The Mother
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. 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 only be a threepenny bit. And if he sees him a third time, he'll hand him over cold-bloodedly to the police.
BERTOLT BRECHT
The Threepenny Opera
I see with sympathy
The swollen veins on his brow, showing
How exhausting it is to be evil.
BERTOLT BRECHT
"The Mask of Evil"
The absurdity of opera lies in the fact that rational elements are used and three-dimensional reality is aimed at while at the same time everything is neutralized by the music.
BERTOLT BRECHT
"The Modern Theatre Is the Epic Theatre", 1930
I am a playwright. I show
What I have seen. In the man markets
I have seen how men are traded. That
I show, I, the playwright.
BERTOLT BRECHT
"The Playwright's Song"
Little changes are the enemies of great changes.
BERTOLT BRECHT
"Quotation"
Do not treat me in this fashion. Don't leave me out. Have I not
Always spoken the truth in my books? And now
You treat me like a liar! I order you:
Burn me!
BERTOLT BRECHT
a response to Nazi book burnings, "The Burning of the Books"
Come in, dear wind, and be our guest
You too have neither home nor rest.
BERTOLT BRECHT
"Christmas Legend"
Art is not a mirror held up to reality
but a hammer with which to shape it.
BERTOLT BRECHT
attributed, Decade of Protest
Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are.
BERTOLT BRECHT
attributed, Dictionary of Contemporary Quotations
Those who are weak don't fight.
Those who are stronger might fight for an hour.
Those who are stronger still might fight for many years.
The strongest fight their whole life.
They are the indispensable ones.
BERTOLT BRECHT
The Mother
A man who strains himself on the stage is bound, if he is any good, to strain all the people sitting in the stalls.
BERTOLT BRECHT
Brecht on Theatre
I don't know what a man is. Only that every man has his price.
BERTOLD BRECHT
The Exception and the Rule
The theater-goer in conventional dramatic theater says: Yes, I've felt that way, too. That's the way I am. That's life. That's the way it will always be. The suffering of this or that person grips me because there is no escape for him.
BERTOLT BRECHT
"Entertainment or Education?"