Then I will tell you something. I do not believe in it. Forty years among men has consistently taught me that they are not amenable to commonsense. Show them the red tail of a comet, fill them with black terror, and they will all come running out of their houses and break their legs. But tell them one sensible proposition, and support it with seven reasons, and they will simply laugh in your face.
Bertolt BrechtWe 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 BrechtRecently my fingers have developed a prejudice against comparatives. They all follow this pattern: a squirrel is smaller than a tree; a bird is more musical than a tree. Each of us is the strongest one in his or her own skin. Characteristics should take off their hats to one another, instead of spitting in each other's faces.
Bertolt BrechtIt isn't important to come out on top, what matters is to be the one who comes out alive.
Bertolt BrechtWhat rapture, oh, it is to know A good thing when you see it And having seen a good thing, oh, What rapture 'tis to flee it.
Bertolt BrechtToday every invention is received with a cry of triumph which soon turns into a cry of fear.
Bertolt BrechtEveryone chases after happiness, not noticing that happiness is right at their heels.
Bertolt BrechtFrom the start it has been the theatre's business to entertain people ... it needs no other passport than fun.
Bertolt BrechtI was called up in the war and sent to a hospital. I dressed wounds, applied iodine, gave enemas, did blood transfusions. If the doctor ordered: "Brecht, amputate a leg!", I would reply, "Certainly, Your Excellency!", and cut off the leg. If I was told, "Perform a trepanning!" I opened the man's skull and messed about with his brains. I saw how they patched fellows up, so as to cart them back to the Front as quickly as they could.
Bertolt BrechtThe war which is coming Is not the first one. There were Other wars before it. When the last one came to an end There were conquerors and conquered. Among the conquered the common people Starved. Among the conquerors The common people starved too.
Bertolt BrechtThere must always be some who are brighter and some who are stupider, the latter make up for it by being better workers.
Bertolt BrechtThe 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 BrechtOne cannot be arraigned for declaring a war, which every ruler has to do once in a while, but only for running a war badly.
Bertolt BrechtIt 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 BrechtGeneral, your tank is a powerful vehicle It smashes down forests and crushes a hundred men. But it has one defect: It needs a driver. General, your bomber is powerful. It flies faster than a storm and carries more than an elephant. But it has one defect: It needs a mechanic. General, man is very useful. He can fly and he can kill. But he has one defect: He can think.
Bertolt BrechtThe 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.
Bertolt BrechtWhat kind of times are they, when A talk about trees is almost a crime Because it implies silence about so many horrors?
Bertolt BrechtWriters can't write as fast as governments make wars; because to write demands thinking.
Bertolt Brecht