The 50 Best Quotes by Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht (1898 – 1956), born 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 an affluent society with too many conventions. Although he enrolled in medical school, he would soon abandon his studies and devote himself to writing and directing plays.

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 European countries.

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.

Its moral precepts are summarized in this famous quote.

2. Eating comes first, then morals come.

Politics is of no use if some basic issues are not resolved.

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

Reflection on art and its capacity 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?

Communist and faithful to his principles, he considered the capitalist system to be the cause of certain evils and shortages in his nation.

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

Lies and double-facedness cannot last over time.

7. With the war, the property of the landowners increases, the misery of the miserable increases, the general’s speeches increase, and the silence of men increases.

Those who organize wars always benefit after conflicts.

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

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 Bertolt Brecht’s most famous and remembered phrases, 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 intend, in order to reform us, to overcome our criminal instinct, let them feed us first. We will talk about morality later. Those who do not forget to take care of our training, without stopping gaining weight, listen to this: no matter how many times you think about it, first you have to eat, and after you’ve had enough, come morale!

An argument against the dominant 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 things they can understand, they wouldn’t have to go to the theater: they would have to go to the bathroom.

About the ignorance prevailing in his time.

14. Bourgeois democrats emphatically condemn the barbaric methods of their neighbors, 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. Being against fascism without being against capitalism, rebelling against the barbarism that is born of barbarism, is equivalent to demanding a part of the calf and opposing its sacrifice.

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

16. There are men who 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 essential ones.

One of Bertolt Brecht’s most memorable 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 looked 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, capitalist monopolies everywhere create barbaric conditions in factories, mines and fields. But while bourgeois democracies guarantee capitalists, without resorting to violence, possession of the means of production, barbarism is recognized in the fact 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 that the State represents.

19. Gentlemen, do not be so happy with Hitler’s defeat. Because even though the world has stood up and stopped the bastard, the whore who gave birth to him is in heat again.

The shadow of the dictator was lengthened.

20. In dark times, will it also be sung? Dark times will also be sung.

Doubts that arise from his sad days in the midst of the emergence of the Third Reich.

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

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

22. The weak do not fight. The strongest may fight for an hour. Those who are still stronger fight for a few years. But the strongest of all, they 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 was a witness to the interwar period in Europe, a period of great revolutions throughout the continent, which he described in much of his work.

24. He who doesn’t know is an idiot. The one who knows and be quiet it’s a criminal.

A phrase that can help us 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 society worked at the time, especially during Nazism.

27. Praise the tree that joyfully rises from carrion to heaven!

Brecht was truly critical of world religions, especially Christianity.

28. Because I don’t trust him, we are friends.

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

29. Disgraceful is 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. Being against fascism without being against capitalism, rebelling against the barbarism that is born of barbarism, is equivalent to demanding a part of the calf and opposing its sacrifice.

A true declaration of intent of your political position.

31. Don’t be afraid of death so much as of an inadequate life.

A phrase that pushes us to live in the fullest way possible.

32. Convictions are hope.

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

33. He who has not shared the struggle will share the defeat.

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

34. Maybe it is a mistake to mix different wines, but old knowledge and new good mix.

A very apt analogy about knowledge.

35. What you don’t know for yourself, you don’t know.

Only empirical experience will allow us to reach knowledge.

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

An idea quite repeated both in Brecht’s work and in his political proclamations.

37. You know good people because they are better when you know them.

We have all been pleasantly surprised by meeting 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. Just one is too many.

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

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

One of his best-known facets was his unbridled sense of humor.

44. There are many ways to kill.

Brecht considered that the capitalist system was responsible for many of the hardships experienced by the people of his time.

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 relevant 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 approaches were truly controversial at the time.

47. The cut rope can be knotted again, it holds 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 bricklayers 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 usual, find it inexplicable. May the common amaze you. May the rule seem like an abuse to you. And where you find abuse, remedy it.

Brecht worked in a committed manner with the situation of his time and many of his writings aimed to harangue 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 times triumphant.