Brecht Quotes

“Epitaph

Den Tigern ertrann ich
Die Wanzen nährte ich
Aufgefressen wurde ich
Von den Mittelmäßigkeiten.”
― Bertolt Brecht, Hundert (100) Gedichte

“Pensare è uno dei massimi piaceri concessi al genere umano.”
― Bertolt Brecht, Galileo

“Scopo della scienza non è tanto quello di aprire una porta all’infinito sapere, quanto quello di porre una barriera all’infinita ignoranza.”
― Bertolt Brecht, Galileo

“Ah, we've had so many masters,
Swine or eagle, lean or fat one:
Some were tiers, some hyenas,
Still we fed this one and that one.
Whether one is better than the other:
Ah, one boot is always like another
When it treads upon you. What I say about them
Is we need no other masters: we can do without them!

Yes, the wheel is always turning madly,
Neither side stays up or down,
But the water underneath fares badly
For it has to make the wheel go round.

(Ach, wir hatten viele Herren
Hatten Tiger und Hyänen
Hatten Adler, hatten Schweine
Doch wir nährten den und jenen.
Ob sie besser waren oder schlimmer:
Ach, der Stiefel glich dem Stiefel immer
Und uns trat er. Ihr versteht, ich meine
Dass wir keine andern Herren brauchen, sondern keine!

Freilich dreht das Rad sich immer weiter
Dass, was oben ist, nicht oben bleibt.
Aber für das Wasser unten heisst das leider
Nur dass es das Rad halt ewig treibt.)”
― Bertolt Brecht, Selected Poems

“Chi sa perché il dubbio appare agli uomini come una felicità.”
― Bertolt Brecht, Galileo

“Subtle! Subtlety is bourgeois. Brecht us that when he popped drama’s cherry. He fucked drama until it stopped being subtle, like a lady, and started being useful, like a whore.”
― David Burr Gerrard, Short Century

“If there are obstacles, the shortest line between two points may be the crooked line.”
― Bertolt Brecht, Galileo

“The movements of the stars have become clearer; but to the mass of the people the movements of their masters are still incalculable.

[Scene fourteen. Translation by Desmond Vesey, 1960. ‘The present version is a translation of the complete text of the latest German edition, not a stage adaptation.’]”
― Bertolt Brecht, Galileo

“The mechanism of the heavens was clearer, the mechanism of their courts was still murky.

[Scene fourteen. English version by Charles Laughton.]”
― Bertolt Brecht, Galileo

“(Über Bertolt Brecht) aber letztlich war er doch kein Lehrer und kein Volkserzieher. Er war ein leidenschaftlicher Verführer.
Möglichst alle wollte er verführen: Frauen und Männer, Junge und Alte, Künstler und Politiker. Und nirgends schienen ihm die Menschen so verführbar wie im Zuschauerraum des Theaters.”
― Marcel Reich-Ranicki, Meine Geschichte der deutschen Literatur

“A Dostoeivski le interesaba la psicología; sacó a la luz la parte criminal que hay en el hombre. A Brecht le interesa la política; saca a la luz la parte criminal que hay en el negocio.”
― Walter Benjamin, La tarea del crítico

“Every civil war builds on illusions and fear
Even war between individuals; whatever bonds may exist between them

To recapitulate images from history: After the first
world war, exhaustion, victory, inability to
build a new order, growing dissolution, chaos Revanchism Economic depression Then the waiting
for Germany, the generalized war initiated by Germany
This dread waiting, 1938, 1939 When I was conceived
After the cold war another period of exhaustion, another victory Perhaps we are in the presence of generalized
civil war, internal division, hatred Should we prefer
the empire? As Dante did? Or Ezra Pound, Heidegger Or
for that matter Brecht? We love dissolution and chaos passionately,
I hear a voice say, I know whose It is not here that I shall say it
It is not easy There are no nations Pillars of fire precede
the returning, in human terms, lost son.”
― Göran Sonnevi, Mozart's Third Brain

“Ah, we've had so many masters,
Swine or eagle, lean or fat one:
Some were tiers, some hyenas,
Still we fed this one and that one.
Whether one is better than the other:
Ah, one boot is always like another
When it treads upon you. What I say about them
Is we need no other masters: we can do without them!

Yes, the wheel is always turning madly,
Neither side stays up or down,
But the water underneath fares badly
For it has to make the wheel go round.

(Ach, wir hatten viele Herren
Hatten Tiger und Hyänen
Hatten Adler, hatten Schweine
Doch wir nährten den und jenen.
Ob sie besser waren oder schlimmer:
Ach, der Stiefel glich dem Stiefel immer
Und uns trat er. Ihr versteht, ich meine
Dass wir keine andern Herren brauchen, sondern keine!

Freilich dreht das Rad sich immer weiter
Dass, was oben ist, nicht oben bleibt.
Aber für das Wasser unten heisst das leider
NurL dass es das Rad halt ewig treibt.)”
― Bertolt Brecht, Selected Poems

“Those Who Take the Meat from the Table

Teach Contentment.
Those for whom the taxes are destined
Demand sacrifice.
Those who eat their fill speak to the hungry
Of wonderful times to come.
Those who lead the country into the abyss
Call ruling too difficult
For ordinary men.

(Die das Fleisch wegnehmen vom Tisch

Lehren Zufriedenheit.
Die, für die die Gabe bestimmt ist
Verlangen Opfermut.
Die Sattgefressenen sprechen zu den Hungernden
Von den grossen Zeiten, die kommen werden.
Die das Reich in den Abgrund führen
Nennen das Regieren zu schwer
Für den einfachen Mann.)”
― Bertolt Brecht, Selected Poems

“How does a pearl develop into an oyster? A jagged grain of sand makes its way into the oyster's shell and makes its life unbearable. The oyster exudes slime to cover the grain of sand and the slime eventually hardens into a pearl. The oyster nearly dies in the process. To hell with the pearl, give me the healthy oyster!”
― Bertolt Brecht, Galileo

“We crawl by inches. What we find today we will wipe from the blackboard tomorrow and reject it—unless it shows up again the day after tomorrow. And if we find anything which would suit us, that thing we will eye with particular distrust.”
― Bertolt Brecht, Galileo

“I take it that the intent of science is to ease human existence. If you give way to coercion, science can be crippled, and your new machines may simply suggest new drudgeries. Should you, then, in time, discover all there is to be discovered, your progress must become a progress away from the bulk of humanity. The gulf might even grow so wide that the sound of your cheering at some new achievement would be echoed by a universal howl of horror.”
― Bertolt Brecht, Galileo

“When the Regime
commanded the unlawful books to be burned,
teams of dull oxen hauled huge cartloads to the bonfires.

Then a banished writer, one of the best,
scanning the list of excommunicated texts,
became enraged: he'd been excluded!

He rushed to his desk, full of contemptuous wrath,
to write fierce letters to the morons in power —
Burn me! he wrote with his blazing pen —
Haven't I always reported the truth?
Now here you are, treating me like a liar!
Burn me!”
― Bertolt Brecht

“It wasn't a hoax,' Burdmore said quickly. 'It was theater. Real theater. Like Brecht.' ¶ 'What does Brecht have to do with it? I think you should leave Brecht out of this--”
― Rachel Kushner, The Flamethrowers

“It wasn't a hoax,' Burdmoore said quickly. 'It was theater. Real theater. Like Brecht.' ¶ 'What does Brecht have to do with it? I think you should leave Brecht out of this--”
― Rachel Kushner, The Flamethrowers

“Brecht again: "As for the place not desired, there is something there and that's disorder. As for the desired place, there is nothing there and that's order." The New World Order is made up of all these compensations and the fact that there is nothing rather than something, on the ground, on the screens, in our heads: consensus by deterrence. At the desired place (the GuIf, nothing took place, non-war. At the desired place (TV, information), nothing took place, no images, nothing but filler. Not much took place in all our heads either, and that too is in order. The fact that there was nothing at this or that desired place was harmoniously compensated for by the fact that there was nothing elsewhere either. In this manner, the global order unifies all the partial orders.”
― Jean Baudrillard, The Gulf War Did Not Take Place

“What else can you expect with peace running wild all over the place? You know what the trouble with peace is? No organization.”
― Bertolt Brecht, Mother Courage and Her Children