Bertolt Brecht Quotes

Jim[my] Mahoney, in Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (1930)

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

As quoted in Dictionary of Contemporary Quotations (1976) by John Gordon Burke and Ned Kehde, p. 224, also in The Book of Positive Quotations (2007) by John Cook, p. 390

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

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.

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

In den finsteren Zeiten
Wird da auch gesungen werden?
Da wird auch gesungen werden.
Von den finsteren Zeiten.

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.

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

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

For once you must try not to shirk the facts: Mankind is kept alive by bestial acts.

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.

Play your part creatively in all the struggles
Of men of your time, thereby
Helping, with the seriousness of study and the cheerfulness of knowledge
To turn the struggle into common experience and
Justice into a passion.

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

Those who lead the country into the abyss
Call ruling too difficult For ordinary men.