The 50 best quotes by Bertolt Brecht

bertolt brecht (1898 - 1956), born as Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht), was a German playwright and poet and created the so-called epic theater. He is considered one of the most creative and brilliant writers of the 20th century.

Moved by a desire for individual differentiation, the young Bertolt Brecht decided to go against the current of a wealthy society with too many conventions. Although he enrolled in medical school, he would soon drop out and devote himself to writing and directing plays.

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Famous quotes by Bertolt Brecht

A communist and defender of the class struggle, Bertolt Brecht was a passionate intellectual in his time, to the point where he was persecuted by Hitler and had to go into exile in different countries Europeans.

In today's article We are going to get to know the figure of this important German thinker and playwright up close through the best phrases of Bertolt Brecht.

1. The greatest gift you can give to others is the example of your own life.

His moral precepts are summarized in this famous quote.

2. First comes eating, then comes morale.

Politics is useless if some basic issues are not resolved.

3. Art, when it's good, is always entertainment.

Reflection on art and its ability to move us.

4. Many judges are absolutely incorruptible; no one can induce them to do justice.

ironic phrase about the opacity and arbitrariness of justice.

5. What is robbing a bank compared to founding one?

A communist and faithful to his principles, he considered the capitalist system as the cause of certain ills and shortages in his nation.

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6. When the hypocrisy starts to get really shoddy, it's time to start telling the truth.

The lies and the double face cannot last over time.

7. With the war the properties of the landowners increase, the misery of the miserable increases, the general's speeches increase, and the silence of men grows.

Those who organize wars always benefit from conflicts.

8. Art is not a mirror to reflect reality, but a hammer to shape it.

Reflection on art and its social and cultural function.

9. The crisis occurs when the old has not just died and when the new has not just been born.

One of the most famous and remembered phrases by Bertolt Brecht, about the passage of time and the incipient emergence of a new world order.

10. History loves paradoxes.

Extract from one of his letters.

11. Those who try to overcome our criminal instinct to reform us, give us food first. We'll talk about morality later. Those who do not forget to take care of our training, without thereby ceasing to gain weight, listen to this: no matter how much you think about it, first it is eating, and after you are fed up, come morale!

A plea against the ruling elites.

12. Nature has perfections to show that it is the image of God and imperfections to prove that it is only an image.

Fantastic reflection on the natural environment.

13. If people want to see only the things they can understand, they would not have to go to the theater: they would have to go to the bathroom.

About the prevailing ignorance in his time.

14. The bourgeois democrats emphatically condemn the barbaric methods of their neighbours, and their accusations so impress their audiences that they forget that such methods are also practiced in their own countries.

Criticism of bourgeois thought.

15. To be against fascism without being against capitalism, to rebel against the barbarism that is born of barbarism, is equivalent to claiming a part of the calf and refusing to sacrifice it.

There is no point in being alone against the superficial aspect that causes inequality.

16. There are men that fight one day and are good. There are others that fight for a year and are better. Some fight for many years and are very good. But there are those who fight all their lives: those are the essentials.

One of the most memorable Bertolt Brecht phrases, about the incessant effort of good men.

17. I look like the one who carried the brick with him to show the world what his house was like.

Metaphor to reflect on the example we give to others.

18. Certain countries still manage to preserve their forms of property thanks to less violent means than others. However, the capitalist monopolies everywhere create barbaric conditions in the factories, in the mines and in the fields. But while bourgeois democracies guarantee to the capitalists, without recourse to violence, the possession of the means of production, barbarism is recognized in that monopolies can only be defended by declared violence.

Sociological thinking to understand the market economy and the creation of oligopolies through the monopoly of violence represented by the State.

19. Gentlemen, don't be so happy about Hitler's defeat. Because even though the world has stood up and stopped the bastard, the whore that gave birth to him is in heat again.

The dictator's shadow was lengthened.

20. In gloomy times, will it be sung too? He too will sing about the gloomy times.

Doubts that arise from the sad days of him in the midst of the rise of the Third Reich.

21. What times are these in which we have to defend the obvious?

Brecht tirelessly denounced all the injustices that made up the society of his time.

22. The weak don't fight. The strongest may fight for an hour. Those who are still stronger fight for a few years. But the strongest of all, fight all their lives, these are the indispensable ones.

A very inspiring phrase that continues to be a reference for different international revolutionary movements.

23. Revolutions occur in dead ends.

Brecht witnessed the interwar period in Europe, a period of great revolutions throughout the continent, which he described in much of his work.

24. He who knows not is a fool. The one who knows and be quiet it's a criminal.

A phrase that can help us to define the position of some people in the face of injustice.

25. When the truth is too weak to defend itself, it will have to go on the attack.

Some truths must be defended tooth and nail, something Brecht knew from the beginning.

26. When crime multiplies, no one wants to see it.

A summary of how the society of his time worked, especially during Nazism.

27. Praise the tree that jubilantly climbs up to heaven from carrion!

Brecht was truly critical of the world's religions, especially Christianity.

28. Because I don't trust him, we're friends.

A truly striking metaphor, included in Brecht's work.

29. Unfortunate the country that needs heroes.

A country that needs heroes is a country on the edge, destroyed, where social contracts have been betrayed and where people cannot live in peace and freedom.

30. To be against fascism without being against capitalism, to rebel against the barbarism that is born of barbarism, is equivalent to claiming a part of the calf and refusing to sacrifice it.

A true declaration of intent of his political position.

31. Do not fear death so much, but rather the inadequate life.

A phrase that pushes us to live as fully as possible.

32. Convictions are hope.

Firmly believing in our convictions will give us enough strength to succeed in life.

33. Those who have not shared the fight will share the defeat.

A phrase that shows us the critical moment in which European democracies lived with the rise of fascism.

34. Perhaps it is a mistake to mix different wines, but the old knowledge and the new mix well.

A very apt analogy about knowledge.

35. What you don't know yourself, you don't know.

Only empirical experience will allow us to reach knowledge.

36. There is nothing more like a fascist than a frightened bourgeois.

A fairly repeated idea both in Brecht's work and in his political proclamations.

37. Good people are known in that they are better when they are known

We have all been pleasantly surprised to meet a good person first hand.

38. I want to go with the one I love. I do not want to calculate the cost. I don't want to find out if it's good. I don't want to know if he loves me. I want to go with the one I love.

A true declaration of love.

39. Science has only one precept: contribute to science.

A surprising, but no less true definition of science.

40. Against injustice and impunity! No forgiveness, nor forgetness.

One of the many revolutionary proclamations that we can read in Brecht's work.

41. Do not accept inherited customs without discussion.

Brecht was also a fervent critic of traditions and social conventions.

42. A man must have at least two vices. One is just too many.

As a good revolutionary leftist, many of his writings praise vice and personal freedom.

43. I escaped from tigers I fed bedbugs eaten alive I went for mediocrities (epitaph)

One of the best known facets of him was his runaway sense of humor.

44. There are many ways to kill.

Brecht considered that the capitalist system was responsible for much of the hardship that people in his time lived through.

45. They call the river that uproots everything violent, but no one calls the bed that oppresses it violent.

An allegory about oppression that can be perfectly valid today.

46. You will not make me hate war. It is said that we annihilate the weak, but peace does the same.

Some of his political statements were truly controversial in his time.

47. The cut rope can be knotted again, it holds up again, but it is cut.

Brecht was a master of the written word and his work is full of great metaphors.

48. Where did the masons go the night they finished the Chinese Wall?

A very surprising and humorous contribution from this great German author.

49. That which is not strange, find it strange. What is habitual, find it inexplicable. May the ordinary amaze you. That the rule seems to you an abuse. And where you find the abuse, remedy it.

Brecht worked in a committed way with the situation of his time and many of his writings were aimed at haranguing the masses.

50. We may stumble again, but where you abandoned me you will not find me again.

His works reflect very real human relationships, sometimes painful and other triumphant.