Bertolt Brecht Quotes

Will der Schauspieler nicht Papagei oder Affe sein, muß er sich das Wissen der Zeit über das menschliche Zusammenleben aneignen, indem er die Kämpfe der Klassen mitkämpft. Dies mag manchem wie eine Erniedrigung vorkommen, da er die Kunst, ist die Bezahlung geregelt, in die höchsten Sphären versetzt; aber die höchsten Entscheidungen für das Menschengeschlecht werden auf der Erde ausgekämpft, nicht in den Lüften; im »Äußern«, nicht in den Köpfen. Über den kämpfenden Klassen kann niemand stehen, da niemand über den Menschen stehen kann. Die Gesellschaft hat kein gemeinsames Sprachrohr, solange sie in kämpfende Klassen gespalten ist. So heißt unparteiisch sein für die Kunst nur: zur herrschenden Partei gehören.

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.

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

Unhappy the land that is in need of heroes

Mr. Wurlitzer, I am now in a position to receive your organ.

As crimes pile up, they become invisible.

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?

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

Komm, geh mit angeln, sagte der Fischer zum Wurm.

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.

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.

First comes a full stomach, then comes ethics.

Translation: Show interest in her goodness — for no one can be good for long if goodness is not in demand.

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

Ah, what an age it is When to speak of trees is almost a crime For it is a kind of silence about injustice!