German playwright & poet (1898-1956)
There are some with brains and some without. It makes for a better division of labour.
BERTOLT BRECHT
Baal
Unhappy the land that needs heroes.
BERTOLT BRECHT
Life of Galileo
The law was made for one thing alone, for the exploitation of those who don't understand it.
BERTOLT BRECHT
The Threepenny Opera
What is robbing a bank compared with founding a bank?
BERTOLT BRECHT
The Threepenny Opera
Grub first, then ethics.
BERTOLT BRECHT
The Threepenny Opera
War is like love, it always finds a way.
BERTOLT BRECHT
Mother Courage and Her Children
Though the rich of this earth find no difficulty in creating misery, they can't bear to see it.
BERTOLT BRECHT
The Threepenny Opera
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.
BERTOLT BRECHT
"When Evil-Doing Comes Like Falling Rain"
Let nothing be called natural
In an age of bloody confusion,
Ordered disorder, planned caprice,
And dehumanized humanity, lest all things
Be held unalterable!
BERTOLT BRECHT
The Exception and the Rule
From the start it has been the theatre's business to entertain people ... it needs no other passport than fun.
BERTOLT BRECHT
A Short Organum for the Theatre
Do not fear death so much, but rather the inadequate life.
BERTOLT BRECHT
The Mother
The man who laughs has simply not yet had the terrible news.
BERTOLT BRECHT
"To Those Born Later"
The storm that bends the birch trees
Is held to be violent
But how about the storm
That bends the backs of the roadworkers?
BERTOLT BRECHT
"On Violence"
Mixing one's wines may be a mistake, but old and new wisdom mix admirably.
BERTOLT BRECHT
The Caucasian Chalk Circle
You may proclaim, good sirs, your fine philosophy
But till you feed us, right and wrong can wait!
BERTOLT BRECHT
The Threepenny Opera
People remain what they are even if their faces fall apart.
BERTOLT BRECHT
In the Jungle of Cities
If art reflects life, it does so with special mirrors.
BERTOLT BRECHT
A Short Organum for the Theatre
To live means to finesse the processes to which one is subjugated.
BERTOLT BRECHT
On Politics and Society
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. That's great art -- Everything is self-evident. I am made to cry with those who cry, and laugh with those who laugh. But the theater-goer in the epic theater says: I would never have thought that. You can't do that. That's very strange, practically unbelievable. That has to stop. The suffering of this or that person grips me because there is an escape for him. That's great art -- nothing is self-evident. I am made to laugh about those who cry, and cry about those who laugh.
BERTOLT BRECHT
On Theatre
Love is the desire to give, not to receive, something. Love is the art of producing something with the other's talents.
BERTOLT BRECHT
"Love of Whom?"