Bertolt Brecht Quotations

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

Society cannot share a common communication system so long as it is split into warring factions.

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

To live means to finesse the processes to which one is subjugated.

Everyone chases after happiness, not noticing that happiness is right at their heels.

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

It is easier to rob by setting up a bank than by holding up a bank clerk.

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

Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are.

Whenever there are great virtues, it's a sure sign something's wrong.

Hungry man, reach for the book: it is a weapon.

War is like love, it always finds a way.

The defeats and victories of the fellows at the top aren't always defeats and victories for the fellows at the bottom.

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.

Do not fear death so much but rather the inadequate life.

There are many elements to a campaign. Leadership is number one. Everything else is number two.

Intelligence is not to make no mistakes, but quickly to see how to make them good.

Poverty makes you wise but it's a curse.

Don't be afraid of death so much as an inadequate life.

What happens to the hole when the cheese is gone?

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

Mixing one's wines may be a mistake, but old and new wisdom mix admirably.

Science knows only one commandment - contribute to science.

One forgets too easily the difference between a man and his image, and that there is none between the sound of his voice on the screen and in real life.

He who laughs has not yet heard the bad news.

It’s all right to hesitate if you then go ahead.

You don't need to pray to God any more when there are storms in the sky, but you do have to be insured.

Unhappy the land that is in need of heroes.

From the cradle to the coffin underwear comes first.

What is the robbing of a bank compared to the founding of a bank?

Poverty makes you sad as well as wise.

What's breaking into a bank compared with founding a bank?

What a miserable thing life is: you're living in clover, only the clover isn't good enough.

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

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.

Why be a man when you can be a success?

The finest plans have always been spoiled by the littleness of them that should carry them out. Even emperors can't do it all by themselves.

Here today we huddle tight As the darkest heathens might The snow falls chilly on our skin The snow is forcing its way in. Hush, snow, come in with us to dwell: We were thrown out by Heaven as well.

For time flows on, and if it did not, it would be a bad prospect for those who do not sit at golden tables. Methods become exhausted; stimuli no longer work. New problems appear and demand new methods. Reality changes; in order to represent it, modes of representation must also change. Nothing comes from nothing; the new comes from the old, but that is why it is new.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

The headlong stream is termed violent But the river bed hemming it in is Termed violent by no one.

Come in, dear wind, and be our guest You too have neither home nor rest.

Their peace and their war Are like wind and storm. War grows from their peace.

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

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.

One can describe the world of today to the people of today only if one describes it as capable of alteration.

It was never decreed that a god mustn't pay hotel bills.

Who does Not Know the Truth, is simply a Fool... Yet who Knows the Truth and Calls it a Lie, is a Criminal.

The finest plans are always ruined by the littleness of those who ought to carry them out, for emperor himself can actually be nothing.

Only bad generals need heroes.

He who speaks of enemies , himself is the enemy.

I don't trust him. We're friends.

The right to happiness is fundamental; men live so little time and die alone.

When you name yourself, you always name another.

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

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.

When crimes begin to pile up they become invisible. When sufferings become unendurable the cries are no longer heard. The cries, too, fall like rain in summer.

Little changes are the enemies of great changes.

If art reflects life, it does so with special mirrors.

Things take indeed a wondrous turn When learned men do stoop to learn.

What's a joy to the one is a nightmare to the other.

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

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

Even hatred of vileness Distorts a mans features.

When the praying does no good, insurance does help.

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

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

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.

There are a 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.

Terrible is the temptation to be good.

Art and science work in quite different ways: agreed. But, bad as it may sound, I have to admit that I cannot get along as an artist without the use of one or two sciences. ... In my view, the great and complicated things that go on in the world cannot be adequately recognized by people who do not use every possible aid to understanding.

Art and science coincide insofar as both aim to improve the lives of men and women. The latter normally concerns itself with profit, the former with pleasure. In the coming age, art will fashion our entertainment out of new means of productivity in ways that will simultaneously enhance our profit and maximize our pleasure.

When the wound/ No longer hurts/ The scar does.

Suppose they gave a war, and nobody came? Why then, the war would come to you!

Who has good luck is good, Who has bad luck is bad.

Erst kommt das Fressen, dann kommt die Moral.

Something ignoble, loathsome, undignified attends all associations between people and has been transferred to all objects, dwelling, tools, even the landscape itself.

Food first, then morality.

The fate of man is man.

Writers can't write as fast as governments make wars; because to write demands thinking.

First the pork chops, then morality

Temptation to behave is terrible.

Don’t accept the habitual as a natural thing. In times of disorder, of organized confusion, of de-humanized humanity, nothing should seem natural. Nothing should seem impossible to change.

Literary works cannot be taken over like factories, or literary forms of expression like industrial methods. Realist writing, of which history offers many widely varying examples, is likewise conditioned by the question of how, when and for what class it is made use of.

Pleasures First look from morning's window The rediscovered book Fascinated faces Snow, the change of the seasons The newspaper The dog Dialectics Showering, swimming Old music Comfortable shoes Comprehension New music Writing, planting Traveling Singing Being friendly

Impact lies in the vicinity of mistakes.

Who built the seven gates of Thebes? In the books are listed the names of kings. Did the kings heave up the building blocks?

If you wan to steal money, don't rob a bank - open one.

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?

Schoenberg is too melodious for me, too sweet.

Reality changes; in order to represent it, modes of representation must change.

When something seems ‘the most obvious thing in the world’ it means that any attempt to understand the world has been given up.

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

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.

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.