Bertolt Quotes & Sayings

Who fights for Communism must be able to fight and not to fight, to speak the truth and not to speak the truth, to perform services and not to perform services, to keep promises and not to keep promises, to go into danger and to keep out of danger, to be recognizable and not to be recognizable. Who fights for Communism has only one of all the virtues: that he fights for Communism. — Bertolt Brecht

For the villainy of the world is great, and a man has to run his legs off to keep them from being stolen out fom underneath him. — Bertolt Brecht

Don't expect the theatre to satisfy the habits of its audience, but to change them. — Bertolt Brecht

Corpses sour you. They are bad for objectivity. — Bertolt Brecht

Food comes first and then morality
Bertolt brecht — Bertolt Brecht

Happy is the people who need no heroes. — Bertolt Brecht

I refuse to give readers an uplifting faux experience engineered to comfort them and perpetuate the sociopolitical and economic status quo."
"Who died and made you Bertolt Brecht? — Chuck Palahniuk

Sometimes I have visions of myself driving through hell, selling sulphur and brimstone, or through heaven peddling refreshments to the roaming souls. If me and the children I've got left could find a place where there's no shooting, I wouldn't mind a few years of peace and quiet. — Bertolt Brecht

Well, where is she ? Where the colossal / Mountains of smoke stand. / That thing there amongst the fires / Is her. — Bertolt Brecht

We often do not know ourselves the grounds On which we act, though plain to others. — Bertolt Brecht

For what's the use of talking with a man who has a disease and thinks about the stars? — Bertolt Brecht

To those who does not know the world is on fire, I have nothing to say. — Bertolt Brecht

Sitting and sedition don't mix. — Bertolt Brecht

All artforms are in the service of the greatest of all arts: the art of living. — Bertolt Brecht

Every day, to earn my daily bread I go to the market where lies are bought Hopefully I take up my place among the sellers. — Bertolt Brecht

The wickedness of the world is so great, you have to keep running so your legs won't be stolen from under you! — Bertolt Brecht

You have to attack once the truth is too weak to defend itself. — Bertolt Brecht

When the wound/ No longer hurts/ The scar does. — Bertolt Brecht

Old Man, right (sighing): Death to the fascists! — Bertolt Brecht

People remain what they are even if their faces fall apart. — Bertolt Brecht

I'm in good form, taking no interest in things, neglecting clothes, meals, company, and feeling calm and stable as I write. — Bertolt Brecht

NEPHEW: One cannot be arraigned for declaring a war, which every ruler has to do once in a while, but only for running a war badly. — Bertolt Brecht

What keeps a man alive?
He feeds on others. — Bertolt Brecht

Sometimes it's more important to be human, than to have good taste. — Bertolt Brecht

Knowledge is just a commodity. It is acquired in order to be resold. All those who have grown out of going to school have to do their learning virtually in secret, for anyone who admits the he has still something to learn devalues himself as a man whose knowledge is inadequate. — Bertolt Brecht

On a certain day in the blue-moon month of September
Beneath a young plum tree, quietly
I held her there, my quiet, pale beloved
In my arms just like a graceful dream.
And over us in the beautiful summer sky
There was a cloud on which my gaze rested
It was very white and so immensely high
And when I looked up, it had disappeared. — Bertolt Brecht

The rain Never falls upwards. When the wound Stops hurting What hurts is The scar. — Bertolt Brecht

When the house of a great one collapses Many little ones are slain. — Bertolt Brecht

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. — Bertolt Brecht

I hope I can pull the wagon by myself. Yes, I'll manage, there's not much in it now. I must get back into business. — Bertolt Brecht

Those who have had no share in the good fortunes of the mighty Often have a share in their misfortunes. — Bertolt Brecht

Righteous people have no sense of humor. — Bertolt Brecht

It's all right to hesitate if you then go ahead. — Bertolt Brecht

Of all the works of man I like best Those which have been used. The copper pots with their dents and flattened edges The knives and forks whose wooden handles Have been worn away by many hands: such forms Seemed to me the noblest. — Bertolt Brecht

There are times when you have to choose between being human and having good taste. — Bertolt Brecht

The mill wheel turns, it turns forever, though what is uppermost remains not so. — Bertolt Brecht

Firebugs dragging their gasoline bottles Are approaching the Academy of Arts, with a grin. And so, instead of embracing them, Let us demand the freedom of the elbow To knock the bottles out of their filthy hands. Even the most blockheaded bureaucrat, Provided he loves peace, Is a greater lover of the arts Than any so-called art-lover Who loves the arts of war. — Bertolt Brecht

You can't write poems about trees when the woods are full of policemen. — Bertolt Brecht

A good soldier has his heart and soul in it. When he receives an order, he gets a hard on, and when he drives his lance through his enemy's guts, he comes. — Bertolt Brecht

There must always be some who are brighter and some who are stupider, the latter make up for it by being better workers. — Bertolt Brecht

Nowadays, anyone who wishes to combat lies and ignorance and to write the truth must overcome at least five difficulties. He must have the courage to write the truth when truth is everywhere opposed; the keenness to recognize it, although it is everywhere concealed; the skill to manipulate it as a weapon; the judgment to select those in whose hands it will be effective; and the running to spread the truth among such persons. — Bertolt Brecht

Unfortunate the country that needs heroes! — Bertolt Brecht

The fanatics for progress often have too little appreciation of the existing. — Bertolt Brecht

A man who doesn't know the truth is just an idiot, but a man who knows the truth and calls it a lie is a crook. — Bertolt Brecht

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. — Bertolt Brecht

The law was made for one thing alone, for the exploitation of those who don't understand it, or are prevented by naked misery from obeying it. — Bertolt Brecht

Oh why do we not say the important things, it would be so easy, and we are damned because we do not. — Bertolt Brecht

It is not enough to demand insight and informative images of reality from the theater. Our theater must stimulate a desire for understanding, a delight in changing reality. Our audience must experience not only the ways to free Prometheus, but be schooled in the very desire to free him. Theater must teach all the pleasures and joys of discovery, all the feelings of triumph associated with liberation. — Bertolt Brecht

When something seems 'the most obvious thing in the world' it means that any attempt to understand the world has been given up. — Bertolt Brecht

Proof seduces them. One of the greatest pleasures of the human race is thinking. — Bertolt Brecht

Terrible is the temptation to be good. — Bertolt Brecht

Never believe on faith, see for yourself! What you yourself don't learn you don't know. — Bertolt Brecht

Who destroys books? Cities, churches, dictators and fanatics. Their fingers itch to build a pyre and strike the match. On 10 May 1933, students gathered in Berlin to dance around a bonfire of 25,000 volumes of 'un-German' books. They burned, amongst many others, Bertolt Brecht, Otto Dix, Heinrich Heine, Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce and H.G. Wells. They destroyed them because the contents were too dangerous. — Linda Grant

For once you must try not to shirk the facts:
Mankind is kept alive by bestial acts. — Bertolt Brecht

Poverty makes you sad as well as wise. — Bertolt Brecht

Grub first, then ethics. — Bertolt Brecht

People are too durable, that's their main trouble. They can do too much to themselves, they last too long. — Bertolt Brecht

Life is short and so is money. — Bertolt Brecht

But something's missing ( Aber etwas fehlt ). — Bertolt Brecht

Right is its own defense. — Bertolt Brecht

When you name yourself, you always name another. — Bertolt Brecht

The more innocent they are, the more they deserve to be shot. — Bertolt Brecht

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

and you i beg make not your anger manifest. For all that lives needs help from all the rest. — Bertolt Brecht

With drooping shoulders The majority sit hunched, their foreheads furrowed like Stony ground that has been repeatedly ploughed-up to no purpose. — Bertolt Brecht

I don't know what a man is. Only that every man has his price. — Bertolt Brecht

Thinking is one of the greatest pleasures of the human race. — Bertolt Brecht

When the praying does no good, insurance does help. — Bertolt Brecht

Boy meets girl. So what? — Bertolt Brecht

He who laughs last has not yet heard the bad news. — Bertolt Brecht

That cloud, however, blossomed just for minutes
And when I gazed up, faded in the wind. — Bertolt Brecht

Young Alexander conquered India.
He alone?
Caesar beat the Gauls. Was there not even a cook in his army?
Philip of Spain wept as his fleet was sunk and destroyed. Were there no other tears?
Frederick the Great triumphed in the Seven Years War. Who
Triumphed with him? — Bertolt Brecht

What rapture, oh, it is to know A good thing when you see it And having seen a good thing, oh, What rapture 'tis to flee it. — Bertolt Brecht

THE POLICEMAN: I'm a policeman. I'm paid by those in charge to combat dissatisfaction. — Bertolt Brecht

It is many years ago and at times I know nothing about her anymore who was once all things to me but all things pass. (The Eleventh Psalm) — Bertolt Brecht

What happens to the hole when the cheese is gone? — Bertolt Brecht

Every time you name yourself, you name someone else. — Bertolt Brecht

Alas,we who wanted kindness, could not be kind ourselves. — Bertolt Brecht

No one will improve your lot if you do not yourself. — Bertolt Brecht

Only bad generals need heroes. — Bertolt Brecht

The human race tends to remember the abuses to which it has been subjected rather than the endearments. What's left of kisses? Wounds, however, leave scars. — Bertolt Brecht

For though the world has stood up and stopped the bastard, the bitch that bore him is in heat again. — Bertolt Brecht

People who understand everything get no stories. — Bertolt Brecht

No one can be good for long if goodness is not in demand. — Bertolt Brecht

Art is not a mirror. Art is a hammer. — Bertolt Brecht

Love is the wish to give, not to receive. — Bertolt Brecht

When the leaders speak of peace, the common folk know war is coming. — Bertolt Brecht

The world of knowledge takes a crazy turn when teachers themselves are taught to learn. — Bertolt Brecht

As crimes pile up, they become invisible. — Bertolt Brecht

He says he'd like to kiss the ground you walk on-reminds me, did you wash them yesterday?- and after that you're his skivvy. — Bertolt Brecht

The river that everything drags is known as violent, but nobody calls violent the margins that arrest him. — Bertolt Brecht

Weaknesses

You had none
I had one:
I loved. — Bertolt Brecht

You who will emerge from the flood
In which we have gone under
Remember
When you speak of our failings
The dark time too
Which you have escaped — Bertolt Brecht

General, man is very useful. He can fly and he can kill. But he has one defect: He can think. — Bertolt Brecht

Spring is noticed, if at all By people sitting in railway trains. — Bertolt Brecht

For the task assigned them Men aren't smart enough or sly Any rogue can blind them With a clever lie. — Bertolt Brecht

What they could do with 'round 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. — Bertolt Brecht

It isn't important to come out on top, what matters is to be the one who comes out alive. — Bertolt Brecht

Don't tell me peace has broken out. — Bertolt Brecht

Love is also like a coconut which is good while it is fresh, but you have to spit it out when the juice is gone, what's left tastes bitter. — Bertolt Brecht