Bertolt Brecht Quotes

Quotes about:

• Art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it.

  Bertolt Brecht

  Art, Reality, Mirrors

  255 Copy quote

• The worst illiterate is the political illiterate. He hears nothing, sees nothing, takes no part in political life. He doesn't seem to know that the cost of living, the price of beans, of flour, of rent, of medicines all depend on political decisions. He even prides himself on his political ignorance, sticks out his chest and says he hates politics. He doesn't know, the imbecile, that from his political non-participation comes the prostitute, the abandoned child, the robber and, worst of all, corrupt officials, the lackeys of exploitative multinational corporations.

  Bertolt Brecht

  Children, Hate, Ignorance

  288 Copy quote

• Don't expect the theatre to satisfy the habits of its audience, but to change them.

  Bertolt Brecht

  Theatre, Habit, Audience

  183 Copy quote

• He who fights, can lose. He who doesn't fight, has already lost.

  Bertolt Brecht

  Fighting, Lost, Loses

  208 Copy quote

• Who does Not Know the Truth, is simply a Fool... Yet who Knows the Truth and Calls it a Lie, is a Criminal.

  Bertolt Brecht

  Lying, Criminals, Doe

  151 Copy quote

• For art to be 'unpolitical' means only to ally itself with the 'ruling' group.

  Bertolt Brecht

  Art, Mean, Allies

  Bertolt Brecht, John Willett (1964). “Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic”

  42 Copy quote

• 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.

  Bertolt Brecht

  Struggle, Men, Years

  "Democracy Unbound: Progressive Challenges to the Two Party System". Book by David B. Reynolds, 1997.

  210 Copy quote

• Bank robbery is an initiative of amateurs. True professionals establish a bank.

  Bertolt Brecht

  Initiative, Robbery, Bank Robbery

  150 Copy quote

• If you don't have fun, you don't have a show.

  Bertolt Brecht

  Inspirational, Fun, Shows

  28 Copy quote

• To those who does not know the world is on fire, I have nothing to say.

  Bertolt Brecht

  Fire, Doe, World

  37 Copy quote

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

  Bertolt Brecht

  Inspirational, Dark, Singing

  Bertolt Brecht, Ralph Manheim (1987). “Poems, 1913-1956”, p.320, Taylor & Francis

  89 Copy quote

• It is not enough to demand insight and informative images of reality from the theater. Our theater must stimulate a desire for understanding, a delight in changing reality.

  Bertolt Brecht

  Reality, Understanding, Desire

  "Essays on the Art of Theater". Book by Bertolt Brecht, 1954.

  111 Copy quote

• Nowadays, anyone who wishes to combat lies and ignorance and to write the truth must overcome at least five difficulties. He must have the courage to write the truth when truth is everywhere opposed; the keenness to recognize it, although it is everywhere concealed; the skill to manipulate it as a weapon; the judgment to select those in whose hands it will be effective; and the running to spread the truth among such persons.

  Bertolt Brecht

  Running, Lying, Writing

  Bertolt Brecht (1966). “Galileo”, p.133, Grove Press

  199 Copy quote

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

  Bertolt Brecht

  Change, Moving On, Stay Strong

  "Dictionary of Contemporary Quotations". Book by John Gordon Burke and Ned Kehde, 1976.

  78 Copy quote

• The first time it was reported that our friends were being butchered there was a cry of horror. Then a hundred were butchered. But when a thousand were butchered and there was no end to the butchery, a blanket of silence spread. 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

  Summer, Rain, Fall

  181 Copy quote

• Erst kommt das Fressen, dann kommt die Moral.

  Bertolt Brecht

  Anger, Moral, Dies

  'Die Dreigroschenoper' (1928) act 2, sc. 3

  10 Copy quote

• You can't write poems about trees when the woods are full of policemen.

  Bertolt Brecht

  Writing, Tree, Woods

  6 Copy quote

• 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

  Party, Government, People

  "Brecht on Brecht : An Improvisation". Book by George Tabori, 1967.

  90 Copy quote

• When the leaders speak of peace, the common folk know war is coming.

  Bertolt Brecht

  War, Common Folk, Leader

  Bertolt Brecht, Ralph Manheim (1987). “Poems, 1913-1956”, p.287, Taylor & Francis

  12 Copy quote

• 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

  Government, Splits, Fool

  Bertolt Brecht, Ralph Manheim (1987). “Poems, 1913-1956”, p.186, Taylor & Francis

  54 Copy quote

• Don’t accept the habitual as a natural thing. In times of disorder, of organized confusion, of de-humanized humanity, nothing should seem natural. Nothing should seem impossible to change.

  Bertolt Brecht

  Confusion, Humanity, Impossible

  35 Copy quote

• Writers can't write as fast as governments make wars; because to write demands thinking.

  Bertolt Brecht

  War, Writing, Thinking

  22 Copy quote

• All artforms are in the service of the greatest of all arts: the art of living.

  Bertolt Brecht

  Art, Art Of Living

  53 Copy quote

• 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.

  Bertolt Brecht

  Feelings, Historical, Theatre

  Bertolt Brecht, John Willett (1964). “Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic”

  83 Copy quote

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

  Bertolt Brecht

  Creating, Earth, Bears

  Bertolt Brecht (2015). “The Threepenny Opera”, p.59, Bloomsbury Publishing

  33 Copy quote

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