German playwright & poet (1898-1956)
The main objective is to learn to think crudely. Crude thinking is the great one's thinking.
BERTOLT BRECHT
Dreigroschenroman
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.
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"Solidarity Song"
What they could use around here is a good war. What else can you expect with peace running wild all over the place? You know what the trouble with peace is? No organization. And when do you get organization? In a war. Peace is one big waste of equipment. Anything goes, no one gives a damn. See the way they eat? Cheese on pumpernickel, bacon on the cheese? Disgusting! How many horses have they got in this town? How many young men? Nobody knows! They haven't bothered to count 'em! That's peace for you! I've been in places where they haven't had a war for seventy years and you know what? The people haven't even been given names! They don't know who they are! It takes a war to fix that. In a war, everyone registers, everyone's name's on a list. Their shoes are stacked, their corn's in the bag, you count it all up -- cattle, men, et cetera -- and you take it away! That's the story: no organization, no war!
BERTOLT BRECHT
Mother Courage
Mankind is kept alive by bestial acts.
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The Threepenny Opera
I am a playwright. I show
What I have seen. In the man markets
I have seen how men are traded. That
I show, I, the playwright.
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"The Playwright's Song"
I see with sympathy
The swollen veins on his brow, showing
How exhausting it is to be evil.
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"The Mask of Evil"
Do not treat me in this fashion. Don't leave me out. Have I not
Always spoken the truth in my books? And now
You treat me like a liar! I order you:
Burn me!
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a response to Nazi book burnings, "The Burning of the Books"
The world of knowledge takes a crazy turn
When teachers themselves are taught to learn.
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Life of Galileo
Always the victor writes the history of the vanquished. He who beats distorts the faces of the beaten. The weaker depart from this world and the lies remain.
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The Trial of Lucullus
Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are.
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attributed, Dictionary of Contemporary Quotations
Come in, dear wind, and be our guest
You too have neither home nor rest.
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"Christmas Legend"
The absurdity of opera lies in the fact that rational elements are used and three-dimensional reality is aimed at while at the same time everything is neutralized by the music.
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"The Modern Theatre Is the Epic Theatre", 1930
The theater-goer in conventional dramatic theater says: Yes, I've felt that way, too. That's the way I am. That's life. That's the way it will always be. The suffering of this or that person grips me because there is no escape for him.
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"Entertainment or Education?"
You don't need to pray to God any more when there are storms in the sky, but you do have to be insured.
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The Mother
A man who strains himself on the stage is bound, if he is any good, to strain all the people sitting in the stalls.
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Brecht on Theatre
Art is not a mirror held up to reality
but a hammer with which to shape it.
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attributed, Decade of Protest
My business is trying to arouse human pity. There are few things that'll move people to pity, a few, but the trouble is when they've been used several times, they no longer work. 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.
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The Threepenny Opera
Those who are weak don't fight.
Those who are stronger might fight for an hour.
Those who are stronger still might fight for many years.
The strongest fight their whole life.
They are the indispensable ones.
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The Mother
Little changes are the enemies of great changes.
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"Quotation"
I don't know what a man is. Only that every man has his price.
BERTOLD BRECHT
The Exception and the Rule