Bertolt Brecht
Sin is what is new, strong, surprising, strange. The theatre must take an interest in sin if the young are to be able to go there.Collection: Strong
As regards obstacles, the shortest distance between two points can be a curve.Collection: Distance
People cannot remain good unless good is expected of them.Collection: People
The fate of man is man.Collection: Fate
Go make yourself a plan And be a shining light. Then make yourself a second plan, For neither will come right.Collection: Light
Oh why do we not say the important things, it would be so easy, and we are damned because we do not.Collection: Important
Great sport begins at a point where it has ceased to be healthy.Collection: Sports
Life is short and so is money.Collection: Cute
The alienation effect in German epic theater is achieved not only through the actors, but also through music (chorus and song) andsets (transparencies, film strips, etc.). Its main purpose is to place the staged events in their historical context.Collection: Song
Art and science work in quite different ways: agreed. But, bad as it may sound, I have to admit that I cannot get along as an artist without the use of one or two sciences. ... In my view, the great and complicated things that go on in the world cannot be adequately recognized by people who do not use every possible aid to understanding.Collection: Art
A man who sees another man on the street corner with only a stump for an arm will be so shocked the first time he'll give him sixpence. But the second time it'll only be a three penny bit. And if he sees him a third time, he'll have him cold-bloodedly handed over to the police.Collection: Men
Literary works cannot be taken over like factories, or literary forms of expression like industrial methods. Realist writing, of which history offers many widely varying examples, is likewise conditioned by the question of how, when and for what class it is made use of.Collection: Taken
For what's the use of talking with a man who has a disease and thinks about the stars?Collection: Stars
With drooping shoulders The majority sit hunched, their foreheads furrowed like Stony ground that has been repeatedly ploughed-up to no purpose.Collection: Majority
Oh! Moon of Alabama We now must say good-bye We've lost our good old mama And must have whiskey Oh, you know why!Collection: Moon
First the grub, then the morals.Collection: Firsts
For the task assigned them Men aren't smart enough or sly Any rogue can blind them With a clever lie.Collection: Clever
Spring is noticed, if at all By people sitting in railway trains.Collection: Spring
For the villainy of the world is great, and a man has to run his legs off to keep them from being stolen out fom underneath him.Collection: Running
The headlong stream is termed violent But the river bed hemming it in is Termed violent by no one.Collection: Rivers
There are some with brains and some without. It makes for a better division of labour.Collection: Brain
When the wound/ No longer hurts/ The scar does.Collection: Hurt
But something's missing.Collection: Missing
It was never decreed that a god mustn't pay hotel bills.Collection: Pay
First the pork chops, then moralityCollection: Pork
First feed the face, then talk right and wrong.Collection: Faces
Who built the seven gates of Thebes? In the books are listed the names of kings. Did the kings heave up the building blocks?Collection: Kings
Suppose they gave a war, and nobody came? Why then, the war would come to you!Collection: War
The right to happiness is fundamental; men live so little time and die alone.Collection: Happiness
Love is the desire to give, not to receive, something. Love is the art of producing something with the other's talents.Collection: Love
We often do not know ourselves the grounds On which we act, though plain to others.Collection: Knows
You may proclaim, good sirs, your fine philosophy But till you feed us, right and wrong can wait!Collection: Philosophy
What a miserable thing life is: you're in clover; only the clover isn't good enough.Collection: Life
Who struggles can fail. Who doesn't struggle has already failed!Collection: Struggle
Those who have had no share in the good fortunes of the mighty Often have a share in their misfortunes.Collection: Share
For time flows on, and if it did not, it would be a bad prospect for those who do not sit at golden tables. Methods become exhausted; stimuli no longer work. New problems appear and demand new methods. Reality changes; in order to represent it, modes of representation must also change. Nothing comes from nothing; the new comes from the old, but that is why it is new.Collection: Reality
I was called up in the war and sent to a hospital. I dressed wounds, applied iodine, gave enemas, did blood transfusions. If the doctor ordered: "Brecht, amputate a leg!", I would reply, "Certainly, Your Excellency!", and cut off the leg. If I was told, "Perform a trepanning!" I opened the man's skull and messed about with his brains. I saw how they patched fellows up, so as to cart them back to the Front as quickly as they could.Collection: War
Who has good luck is good, Who has bad luck is bad.Collection: Good Luck
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.Collection: Fashion
For once you must try not to shirk the facts: mankind is kept alive by bestial acts.Collection: Sex
Pleasures First look from morning's window The rediscovered book Fascinated faces Snow, the change of the seasons The newspaper The dog Dialectics Showering, swimming Old music Comfortable shoes Comprehension New music Writing, planting Traveling Singing Being friendlyCollection: Dog
There are a 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.Collection: Moving
Boy Meets Girl, So What?Collection: Broken Heart
Eats first, morals after.Collection: Firsts
The more innocent they are, the more they deserve to be shot.Collection: Innocent
People who understand everything get no stories.Collection: People
Recently my fingers have developed a prejudice against comparatives. They all follow this pattern: a squirrel is smaller than a tree; a bird is more musical than a tree. Each of us is the strongest one in his or her own skin. Characteristics should take off their hats to one another, instead of spitting in each other's faces.Collection: Squirrels
One must live well to know what living is.Collection: Live Well