Bertolt brecht quotes

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

What kind of times are they, when A talk about trees is almost a crime Because it implies silence about so many horrors?

In the contradiction lies the hope.

Don't tell me peace has broken out.

　When the leaders speak of peace 　The common folk know 　That war is coming 　When the leaders curse war 　The mobilization order is already written out. 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. 　

If you join the rat race — you're in the race of rats.

Then I will tell you something. I do not believe in it. Forty years among men has consistently taught me that they are not amenable to commonsense. Show them the red tail of a comet, fill them with black terror, and they will all come running out of their houses and break their legs. But tell them one sensible proposition, and support it with seven reasons, and they will simply laugh in your face.

If you fight you might lose, if you don't you have already lost.

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

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

Love is the desire to give, not to receive, something. Love is the art of producing something with the other's talents.

People cannot remain good unless good is expected of them.

Little changes are the enemies of great changes.

The aim of science is not to open the door to infinite wisdom, but to set a limit to infinite error.

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.

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

As regards obstacles, the shortest distance between two points can be a curve.

He who fights, can lose. He who doesn't fight, has already lost.

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.

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.

...it is simplicity that is difficult to make.

Some party hack decreed that the people had lost the government's confidence and could only regain it with redoubled effort. If that is the case, would it not be simpler, If the government simply dissolved the people And elected another?

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

From the cradle to the coffin underwear comes first.

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.

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

I don't like where I'm going and I don't like where I've been. Why am I in a hurry?

Righteous people have no sense of humor.

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

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.

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

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

People who fight may lose. People who do not fight have already lost.

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

Only bad generals need heroes.

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.

The fate of man is man.

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

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

Today every invention is received with a cry of triumph which soon turns into a cry of fear.

Would it not be simpler If the Government dissolved the people and elected another?

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

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

He who speaks of enemies , himself is the enemy.

Sin is what is new, strong, surprising, strange. The theatre must take an interest in sin if the young are to be able to go there.

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

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

Science knows only one commandment - contribute to science.

Great sport begins at a point where it has ceased to be healthy.

A theater without beer is just a museum

Those against politics are in favor of the politics inflicted upon them.

What happens to the hole when the cheese is gone?

Right is its own defense.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A person is really dead only when nobody thinks of him anymore.

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

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

Why be a man when you can be a success?

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

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

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

The war which is coming Is not the first one. There were Other wars before it. When the last one came to an end There were conquerors and conquered. Among the conquered the common people Starved. Among the conquerors The common people starved too.

Temptation to behave is terrible.

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

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.

None will improve your lot If you yourself do not.

Terrible is the temptation to be good.

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

Life is short and so is money.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

Poverty makes you sad as well as wise.

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.

Art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it.

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.

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

A man who strains himself on the stage is bound, if he is any good, to strain all the people sitting in the stalls.

Unhappiness doesn't grow on the chest like leprosy. Poverty won't fall off the roof like a loose tile, no; poverty and unhappiness are man's doing.

Bank robbery is an initiative of amateurs. True professionals establish a bank.

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.

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.

Those who take the most from the table, teach contentment. Those for whom the taxes are destined, demand sacrifice. Those who eat their fill, speak to the hungry, of wonderful times to come. Those who lead the country into the abyss, call ruling difficult, for ordinary folk.

In the dark times Will there also be singing? Yes, there will also be singing. About the dark times.

Art is not a mirror. Art is a hammer.

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

Though the rich of this earth find no difficulty in creating misery, they can't bear to see it.

He who is still laughing is he who hasn't heard the terrible news.

The worst illiterate is the political illiterate. He hears nothing, sees nothing, takes no part in political life. He doesn't seem to know that the cost of living, the price of beans, of flour, of rent, of medicines all depend on political decisions. He even prides himself on his political ignorance, sticks out his chest and says he hates politics. He doesn't know, the imbecile, that from his political non-participation comes the prostitute, the abandoned child, the robber and, worst of all, corrupt officials, the lackeys of exploitative multinational corporations.

It's never too late for those whose time has come.

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

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

Unfortunate the country that needs heroes!

General, your tank is a powerful vehicle It smashes down forests and crushes a hundred men. But it has one defect: It needs a driver. General, your bomber is powerful. It flies faster than a storm and carries more than an elephant. But it has one defect: It needs a mechanic. General, man is very useful. He can fly and he can kill. But he has one defect: He can think.

There are men who struggle for a day and they are good. There are men who struggle for a year and they are better. There are men who struggle many years, and they are better still. But there are those who struggle all their lives: These are the indispensable ones.

From the start it has been the theatre's business to entertain people ... it needs no other passport than fun.

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

The first time it was reported that our friends were being butchered there was a cry of horror. Then a hundred were butchered. But when a thousand were butchered and there was no end to the butchery, a blanket of silence spread. When evil-doing comes like falling rain, nobody calls out "stop!" 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.

Erst kommt das Fressen, dann kommt die Moral.

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

Poverty makes you wise but it's a curse.

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

If you don't have fun, you don't have a show.

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

Unhappy the land that is in need of heroes.

Grub first, then ethics.

War is like love, it always finds a way.

Go make yourself a plan And be a shining light. Then make yourself a second plan, For neither will come right.

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

Love is the wish to give, not to receive.

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

Let nothing be called natural In an age of bloody confusion, Ordered disorder, planned caprice, And dehumanized humanity, lest all things Be held unalterable!

Everyone needs help from everyone.

You can make a fresh start with your final breath.

For art to be 'unpolitical' means only to ally itself with the 'ruling' group.

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.