Bertolt Brecht Quotes

1898–1956, German Dramatist, Poet · Wikipedia · Wikidata
quotes
27
topics
12
Origin
What do these mean?
Topic
“People remain what they are even if their faces fall apart.”
VerifiedGarga, from In the Jungle of Cities [Im Dickicht der Städte] (1923) , sc. 9; also translated as In the Swamp and Jungle of Cities. · evidenceDetails & citeFaces
Report
“Mixing one's wines may be a mistake, but old and new wisdom mix admirably.”
VerifiedThe Singer, in The Caucasian Chalk Circle (1944), Prologue · evidenceDetails & citeWisdom
Report
“For once you must try not to shirk the facts: mankind is kept alive by bestial acts.”
Verified"What Keeps Mankind Alive?" Act 2, sc. 6 · evidenceDetails & citeSex
Report
“Society cannot share a common communication system so long as it is split into warring factions.”
VerifiedA Short Organum for the Theatre (1949) · evidenceDetails & citeMedia
Report
“Literary works cannot be taken over like factories, or literary forms of expression like industrial methods. Realist writing, of which history offers many widely varying examples, is likewise conditioned by the question of how, when and for what class it is made use of.”
Verified"The Popular and the Realistic" (written 1938, published 1958), as translated in Brecht on Theatre (1964) edited and translated by John Willett. · evidenceDetails & citeReality
Report
“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.”
VerifiedA Short Organum for the Theatre (1949) · evidenceDetails & citeTheater
Report
“Don't tell me peace has broken out.”
Peace
Report
“What happens to the hole when the cheese is gone?”
Mystery
Report
“From the cradle to the coffin underwear comes first.”
Dress
Report
“No one will improve your lot if you do not yourself.”
Responsibility
Report
“No one can be good for long if goodness is not in demand.”
Goodness
Report
“It is easier to rob by setting up a bank than by holding up a bank clerk.”
Bankers and Banking
Report
“Today every invention is received with a cry of triumph which soon turns into a cry of fear.”
Invention and Inventor
Report
“There are many elements to a campaign. Leadership is number one. Everything else is number two.”
Leaders and Leadership
Report
“People are too durable, that's their main trouble. They can do too much to themselves, they last too long.”
Endurance
Report
“A man who strains himself on the stage is bound, if he is any good, to strain all the people sitting in the stalls.”
Acting and Actors
Report
“The law was made for one thing alone, for the exploitation of those who don't understand it, or are prevented by naked misery from obeying it.”
Law and Lawyers
Report
“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 three penny bit. And if he sees him a third time, he'll have him cold-bloodedly handed over to the police.”
Charity
Report