BBBertolt Brecht

58 collected words

Bertolt Brecht

Dates not recorded

Name supplied in the contributor-provided quotation collection. Basic attribution label; identity, lifetime and quotation authenticity have not been independently verified.

▷ Play this voice Search these words ↗Place in time ↗death happiness wisdom mind life time friendship knowledge

Quotations and sayings

01Undated

The human race tends to remember the abuses to which it has been subjected rather than the endearments. What's left of kisses? Wounds, however, leave scars.

Bertolt Brecht / quote

02Undated

Natürlich muss die Wahrheit im Kampf mit der Unwahrheit geschrieben werden und sie darf nicht etwas Allgemeines, Hohes, Vieldeutiges sein. Von dieser allgemeinen, hohen, vieldeutigen Art ist ja gerade die Unwahrheit. Wenn von einem gesagt wird, er hat die Wahrheit gesagt, so haben zunächst einige oder viele oder einer etwas anderes gesagt, eine Lüge oder etwas Allgemeines, aber er hat die Wahrheit gesagt, etwas Praktisches, Tatsächliches, Unleugbares, das, um was es sich handelte.

Bertolt Brecht / quote

03Undated

Unhappy the land that is in need of heroes

Bertolt Brecht / quote

04Undated

Everyone chases after happiness, not noticing that happiness is at their heels.

Bertolt Brecht / quote

05Undated

The compassion of the oppressed for the oppressed is indispensable. It is the world's one hope.

Bertolt Brecht / quote

06Undated

Corpses sour you. They are bad for objectivity.

Bertolt Brecht / quote

07Undated

EpitaphDen Tigern ertrann ichDie Wanzen nährte ichAufgefressen wurde ichVon den Mittelmäßigkeiten.

Bertolt Brecht / quote

08Undated

People who understand everything get no stories.

Bertolt Brecht / quote

09Undated

Why be a man when you can be a success.

Bertolt Brecht / quote

10Undated

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

Bertolt Brecht / quote

11Undated

We're not responsible, he thought. This planet is a temporary affair. It's whizzing with all kinds of other ones, a whole range of planetary stuff, toward a star in the Milky Way. On that kind of a planet we're not responsible, he thought.

Bertolt Brecht / quote

12Undated

Those who are weak don't fight.Those who are stronger might fightfor an hour.Those who are stronger still might fightfor many years.The strongest fighttheir whole life.They are the indispensable ones.

Bertolt Brecht / quote

13Undated

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 / quote

14Undated

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.

Bertolt Brecht / quote

15Undated

The war which is comingIs not the first one. There wereOther wars before it.When the last one came to an endThere were conquerors and conquered.Among the conquered the common peopleStarved. Among the conquerorsThe common people starved too.

Bertolt Brecht / quote

16Undated

Sometimes I see myself driving through hell with this wagon and selling brimstone. And sometimes I’m driving through heaven handing our provisions to wandering souls! If only we could find a place where there’s no shooting, me and my children—what’s left of ‘em—we might rest a while.

Bertolt Brecht / quote

17Undated

The worst illiterate is the political illiterate, he doesn’t hear, doesn’t speak, nor participates in the political events. He doesn’t know the cost of life, the price of the bean, of the fish, of the flour, of the rent, of the shoes and of the medicine, all depends on political decisions. The political illiterate is so stupid that he is proud and swells his chest saying that he hates politics. The imbecile doesn’t know that, from his political ignorance is born the prostitute, the abandoned child, and the worst thieves of all, the bad politician, corrupted and flunky of the national and multinational companies.

Bertolt Brecht / quote

18Undated

If we could learn to look instead of gawking,We'd see the horror in the heart of farce,If only we could act instead of talking,We wouldn't always end up on our arse.This was the thing that nearly had us mastered;Don't yet rejoice in his defeat, you men!Although the world stood up and stopped the bastard,The bitch that bore him is in heat again.

Bertolt Brecht / quote

19Undated

He says he'd like to kiss the ground you walk on-reminds me, did you wash them yesterday?- and after that you're his skivvy.

Bertolt Brecht / quote

20Undated

And I did work out something: that the rich of the earth indeed create misery, but they cannot bear to see it. They are weaklings and fools just like you. As long as they have enough to eat and can grease their floors with butter so that even the crumbs that fall from your table grow fat, they can't look with indifference on a man collapsing from hunger - although, of course, it must be in front of their house that he collapses.

Bertolt Brecht / quote

21Undated

Some party hack decreed that the peoplehad lost the government's confidenceand could only regain it with redoubled effort.If that is the case, would it not be be simpler,If the government simply dissolved the peopleAnd elected another?

Bertolt Brecht / quote

22Undated

You may proclaim, good sirs, your fine philosophy, but till you feed us right and wrong can wait. Or is it only those who have the money who can enter the land of milk and honey?

Bertolt Brecht / quote

23Undated

Character is a question of time. It lasts for a certain length of time, just like a glove. There are good ones that last a long time. But they don't last forever.

Bertolt Brecht / quote

24Undated

Sin is what is new, strong, surprising, strange. The theatre must take an interest in sin if the young are to be able to go there.

Bertolt Brecht / quote