Bertolt Brecht Quotes

129 Sourced Quotes

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

Bertolt Brecht
Berlin, an etching by Churchill, after an idea by Hitler.

Bertolt Brecht
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.

Bertolt Brecht
The finest plans are always ruined by the littleness of those who ought to carry them out, for the Emperors can actually do nothing.

Bertolt Brecht
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.

Bertolt Brecht
And I always thought: the very simplest words
Must be enough. When I say what things are like
Everyone's heart must be torn to shreds.
That you'll go down if you don't stand up for yourself
Surely you see that.

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

Bertolt Brecht
The aim of science is not to open the door to infinite wisdom, but to set some limit on infinite error.

Bertolt Brecht
And the shark he has his teeth and
There they are for all to see
And Macheath he has his knife but
No one knows where it may be.

Bertolt Brecht
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?

Bertolt Brecht
On golden chairs
Sitting at ease, you paid for the songs which we chanted
To those less lucky. You paid us for drying their tears
And for comforting all those whom you had wounded.

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

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

Bertolt Brecht
One observes, they have gone too long without a war here. Where is morality to come from in such a case, I ask? Peace is nothing but slovenliness, only war creates order.

Bertolt Brecht
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.

Bertolt Brecht
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.

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

Bertolt Brecht
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 plum tree in the yard's so small
It's hardly like a tree at all.
Yet there it is, railed round
To keep it safe and sound. The poor thing can't grow any more
Though if it could it would for sure.
There's nothing to be done
It gets too little sun.

Bertolt Brecht
Worship with fulness of heart the weak memory of heaven!
It cannot trace
Either your name or your face
Nobody knows you're still living.

Bertolt Brecht
Who built Thebes of the seven gates?
In the books you will find the names of kings.
Did the kings haul up the lumps of rock?…
Where, the evening that the wall of China was finished
Did the masons go?

Bertolt Brecht
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.

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
Don't tell me peace has broken out, when I've just bought fresh supplies.

Bertolt Brecht
A man who sees another man on the street corner with only a stump for an arm will be so shocked the first time 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 have him cold-bloodedly handed over to the police.

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

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
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
You may proclaim, good sirs, your fine philosophy
But till you feed us, right and wrong can wait!

Bertolt Brecht