Bertolt Brecht Quotations

Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht (born Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht February 10, 1898 – August 14, 1956) was an influential German socialist dramatist, stage director, and poet of the 20th century.

Bertolt Brecht | Quotations

Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (1898–1956), commonly known as Bertolt Brecht, was an influential German Marxist dramatist, stage director, and poet of the 20th century.

Bertolt Brecht | Sourced Quotations

Society cannot share a common communication system so long as it is split into warring factions.
"Kleines Organon für das Theater" ("A Short Organum for the Theatre") (1949), paragraph 55
quoted in Brecht on Theatre (1964), edited by John Willett

Bertolt Brecht | Quotations from Brecht's Plays

From... The Threepenny Opera

Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera), 1928

Balladeer: 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.

"The Moritat of Mackie the Knife"; Prologue, p. 3

Translation note: A "moritat" ("murder deed") is a street song telling of murderous crimes. (Lotte Lenya, "Foreward", p. xii)

Variation: Oh the shark has pretty teeth dear,
And he shows them pearly white
Just a jack-knife has Macheath dear
And he keeps it out of sight.

Marc Blitzstein translation; largely used for Louis Armstrong's and Bobby Darin's pop renditions of "The Ballad of Mack the Knife"

Peachum: So it happens, for instance, that a man who sees another man on the street corner with only a stump for an arm will be so shocked the first time that 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 hand him over cold-bloodedly to the police.

Act 1, scene 1, pp. 5-6

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

"Second Threepenny-Finale"; Act 2, scene 3, p. 67

Variation: However much you twist, whatever lies you tell
Food is the first thing, morals follow on.

Popularized by the Pet Shop Boys, "What Keeps Mankind Alive?", Can You Forgive Her (1993 EP)

Variation: Food first, then morality.

Peachum: The law is simply and solely made for the exploitation of those who do not understand it or of those who, for naked need, cannot obey it.

Act 3, scene 1, p. 74

Peachum: For the task assigned them
Men aren't smart enough or sly
Any rogue can blind them
With a clever lie.

"The Song of the Futility of All Human Endeavor"; Act 3, scene 1, p. 75

Macheath: What is the burgling of a bank to the founding of a bank?

Act 3, scene 3, p. 92

For the villainy of the world is great, and a man has to run his legs off to keep them from being stolen out fom underneath him.

Bertolt Brecht, The Threepenny Opera (1928), Act I Scene 3

From... Happy End

Happy End, 1929

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

From... The Mother

Die Mutter (The Mother), 1930

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

Scene 10

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

Bertolt Brecht, The Mother, 1932

From... Life of Galileo

Leben des Galilei (Life of Galileo), 1938; aka Galileo

Andrea: "Unhappy is the land that breeds no hero."
Galileo: No, Andrea: "Unhappy is the land that needs a hero."

Scene 12, p. 115

Variation: Pity the country that needs heroes.
Andrea: Science has only one commandment: contribution.

Scene 13, p. 122

From... Mother Courage and Her Children

Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder (Mother Courage and Her Children), 1939
The Chaplain: War is like love, it always finds a way.

Scene 6, p. 76[3]

From... The Good Person of Sezuan

Der Gute Mensch von Sezuan (The Good Person of Sezuan), 1943; aka The Good Woman of Setzuan

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

Scene 1a, p. 38

Bertolt Brecht | Quotations from Brecht's Poems


General, man is very useful.
He can fly and he can kill.
But he has one defect:
He can think. 
"General, Your Tank Is a Powerful Vehicle", in "From a German War Primer", part of the Svendborg Poems (1938)
quoted in Poems, 1913-1956, p. 289

The man who laughs has simply not yet had the terrible news. 
"To Those Born Later", part of the Svendborg Poems (1938)
quoted in Poems, 1913—1956, p. 318

Variation: He who laughs last has not yet heard the bad news.
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. 
"Hollywood" (1942)
quoted in Poems, 1913—1956, p. 382

Bertolt Brecht | Quotations attributed to Brecht


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. 

Quoted by Cuban musician and poet Silvio Rodríguez before his song "Sueño con serpientes"

Bertolt Brecht | Unsourced Quotations

There is nothing so interesting on stage than a man trying to get a knot out of his shoelaces.

In the contradiction lies the hope.

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

Why be a man when you can be a success?

Vices have their point once you see it as such, but stick to two for one will be too much.

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

Art is not a mirror with which to reflect reality, but a hammer with which to shape it.

Don't rejoice in his defeat, you men. For though the world stood up and stopped the Bastard, the Bitch that bore him is in heat again.
May 6, 1945

The more innocent they are, the more they deserve to be shot.
(on Moscow Trials defendants, as recounted years later by philosopher Sidney Hook; he may have meant that Stalin's killing of innocents was justified, or alternatively that if the defendants had failed to conspire against Stalin, they deserved to be shot).

Under Capitalism you sell your piss to the urinal.

If all people want is to see something they understand, they shouldn't go to the theater. They should go to the bathroom.

I don't trust him. We're friends. - Bertolt Brecht (1898 - 1956)

There are times when you have to choose between being a human and having good taste. - Bertolt Brecht (1898 - 1956)

He who laughs has not yet heard the bad news. - Bertolt Brecht (1898 - 1956)

War is like love; it always finds a way. - Bertolt Brecht (1898 - 1956)

Grub first, then ethics. - Bertolt Brecht (1898 - 1956)

Bertolt Brecht | Credits

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