Bertolt Brecht

"Andrea: Unhappy is the land that breeds no hero. Galileo: No, Andrea: Unhappy is the land that needs a hero. [Unglücklich das Land, das Helden nötig hat.]"

"Science has only one commandment: contribution."

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

"What they could do with round 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."

"Komm, geh mit angeln, sagte der Fischer zum Wurm."

"War is like love, it always finds a way."

"Sometimes I have visions of myself driving through hell, selling sulphur and brimstone, or through heaven peddling refreshments to the roaming souls. If me and the children I've got left could find a place where there's no shooting, I wouldn't mind a few years of peace and quiet."

"Bezeig du Interesse an ihrer Güte, denn keiner kann lang gut sein, wenn nicht Güte verlangt wird."

"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."

"Society cannot share a common communication system so long as it is split into warring factions."

"Will der Schauspieler nicht Papagei oder Affe sein, muß er sich das Wissen der Zeit über das menschliche Zusammenleben aneignen, indem er die Kämpfe der Klassen mitkämpft. Dies mag manchem wie eine Erniedrigung vorkommen, da er die Kunst, ist die Bezahlung geregelt, in die höchsten Sphären versetzt; aber die höchsten Entscheidungen für das Menschengeschlecht werden auf der Erde ausgekämpft, nicht in den Lüften; im »Äußern«, nicht in den Köpfen. Über den kämpfenden Klassen kann niemand stehen, da niemand über den Menschen stehen kann. Die Gesellschaft hat kein gemeinsames Sprachrohr, solange sie in kämpfende Klassen gespalten ist. So heißt unparteiisch sein für die Kunst nur: zur herrschenden Partei gehören."

"If art reflects life, it does so with special mirrors."

"Art and science coincide insofar as both aim to improve the lives of men and women. The latter normally concerns itself with profit, the former with pleasure. In the coming age, art will fashion our entertainment out of new means of productivity in ways that will simultaneously enhance our profit and maximize our pleasure."

"Firebugs dragging their gasoline bottles Are approaching the Academy of Arts, with a grin. And so, instead of embracing them, Let us demand the freedom of the elbow To knock the bottles out of their filthy hands. Even the most blockheaded bureaucrat, Provided he loves peace, Is a greater lover of the arts Than any so-called art-lover Who loves the arts of war."

"Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are. (Weil die Dinge sind, wie sie sind, werden die Dinge nicht so bleiben wie sie sind.)"

"Engel verführt man gar nicht oder schnell. Verzieh ihn einfach in den Hauseingang Steck ihm die Zunge in den Mund und lang Ihm untern Rock, bis er sich naß macht, stell Ihm das Gesicht zur Wand, heb ihm den Rock Und fick ihn. Stöhnt er irgendwie beklommen Dann halt ihn fest und laß ihn zweimal kommen Sonst hat er dir am Ende einen Schock. Ermahn ihn, dass er gut den Hintern schwenkt Heiß ihn dir ruhig an die Hoden fassen Sag ihm, er darf sich furchtlos fallen lassen Dieweil er zwischen Erd und Himmel hängt – Doch schau ihm nicht beim Ficken ins Gesicht Und seine Flügel, Mensch, zerdrück sie nicht."

"Oh why do we not say the important things, it would be so easy, and we are damned because we do not."

"And when she was finished they laid her in earth Flowers growing, butterflies juggling over her... She, so light, barely pressed the earth down How much pain it took to make her as light as that!"

"Worship with fulness of heart the weak memory of heaven! It cannot trace Either your name or your face Nobody knows you're still living."

"Oh the harsh snarl of guitar strings roaring! Heavenly distensions of our throats! Trousers stiff with dirt and love! Such whoring! Long green slimy nights: we were like stoats."

"Marie Farrar: month of birth, April Died in the Meissen penitentiary An unwed mother, judged by the law, she will Show you how all that lives, lives frailly. You who bear your sons in laundered linen sheets And call your pregnancies a "blessed" state Should never damn the outcast and the weak: Her sin was heavy, but her suffering great. Therefore, I beg, make not your anger manifest For all that lives needs help from all the rest."

"Here today we huddle tight As the darkest heathens might The snow falls chilly on our skin The snow is forcing its way in. Hush, snow, come in with us to dwell: We were thrown out by Heaven as well."

"Come in, dear wind, and be our guest You too have neither home nor rest."

"The rain Never falls upwards. When the wound Stops hurting What hurts is The scar."

"Spring is noticed, if at all By people sitting in railway trains."

"On golden chairs Sitting at ease, you paid for the songs which we chanted To those less lucky. You paid us for drying their tears And for comforting all those whom you had wounded."

"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."

"Of all the works of man I like best Those which have been used. The copper pots with their dents and flattened edges The knives and forks whose wooden handles Have been worn away by many hands: such forms Seemed to me the noblest."

"Wie lange Dauern die Werke? So lange Als bis sie fertig sind."

"With drooping shoulders The majority sit hunched, their foreheads furrowed like Stony ground that has been repeatedly ploughed-up to no purpose."

"People will observe you to see How well you have observed. The man who only observes himself however never gains Knowledge of men. He is too anxious To hide himself from himself. And nobody is Cleverer than he himself is."

"Play your part creatively in all the struggles Of men of your time, thereby Helping, with the seriousness of study and the cheerfulness of knowledge To turn the struggle into common experience and Justice into a passion."

"Events cast long shadows before. One such event would be a war. But how are shadows to be seen When total darkness fills the screen?"

"The plum tree in the yard's so small It's hardly like a tree at all. Yet there it is, railed round To keep it safe and sound.The poor thing can't grow any more Though if it could it would for sure. There's nothing to be done It gets too little sun."

"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."

"Who built Thebes of the 7 gates ? In the books you will read the names of kings. Did the kings haul up the lumps of rock ?And Babylon, many times demolished, Who raised it up so many times ?In what houses of gold glittering Lima did its builders live ? Where, the evening that the Great Wall of China was finished, did the masons go?Great Rome is full of triumphal arches. Who erected them?Over whom did the Caesars triumph?Had Byzantium, much praised in song, only palaces for its inhabitants ?Even in fabled Atlantis, the night that the ocean engulfed it, The drowning still cried out for their slaves.The young Alexander conquered India. Was he alone?Caesar beat the Gauls. Did he not even have a cook with him?Philip of Spain wept when his armada went down. Was he the only one to weep?Frederick the Second won the Seven Years' War. Who else won it?Every page a victory. Who cooked the feast for the victors?Every ten years a great man. Who paid the bill?So many reports.So many questions."

"The headlong stream is termed violent But the river bed hemming it in is Termed violent by no one."

"Little changes are the enemies of great changes."

"Their peace and their war Are like wind and storm.War grows from their peace."

"General, 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, man is very useful. He can fly and he can kill. But he has one defect: He can think."

"The man who laughs has simply not yet had the terrible news."

"But something's missing (Aber etwas fehlt)."

"People remain what they are even if their faces fall apart."

"Brecht war gut als Aushängeschild gegenüber dem Westen, aber er war unbeliebt. Zu links und zudem Formalist."

"Wo Unrecht zu Recht wird, wird Widerstand zur Pflicht."

"Selbst die schmalsten Stirnen / In denen der Friede wohnt / Sind den Künsten willkommener als jener Kunstfreund / Der auch Freund der Kriegskunst ist."

"Pfingsten // Sind die Geschenke am geringsten. // Während Geburtstag, Ostern und Weihnachten // Etwas einbrachten."

"Sie sägten die Äste ab, auf denen sie saßen // Und schrieen sich zu ihre Erfahrungen // Wie man schneller sägen konnte, und fuhren // Mit Krachen in die Tiefe, und die ihnen zusahen // Schüttelten die Köpfe beim Sägen und // Sägten weiter."

"Ja, mach nur einen Plan! Sei nur ein großes Licht! Und mach dann noch’nen zweiten Plan, Gehn tun sie beide nicht.."