Quotes by Brecht, Bertolt

"From the cradle to the coffin underwear comes first."

Brecht, Bertolt on dress   

"People are too durable, that's their main trouble. They can do too much to themselves, they last too long."

Brecht, Bertolt on endurance   

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

Brecht, Bertolt on faces   

"No one can be good for long if goodness is not in demand."

Brecht, Bertolt on goodness   

"Unhappy the land that is in need of heroes."

Brecht, Bertolt on heroes and heroism   

"You don't need to pray to God any more when there are storms in the sky, but you do have to be insured."

Brecht, Bertolt on insurance   

"Today every invention is received with a cry of triumph which soon turns into a cry of fear."

Brecht, Bertolt on invention and inventor   

"The law was made for one thing alone, for the exploitation of those who don't understand it, or are prevented by naked misery from obeying it."

Brecht, Bertolt on law and lawyers
4 fans of this quote   

"There are many elements to a campaign. Leadership is number one. Everything else is number two."

Brecht, Bertolt on leadership
3 fans of this quote   

"Don't be afraid of death so much as an inadequate life."

Brecht, Bertolt on life
5 fans of this quote   

"A man who strains himself on the stage is bound, if he is any good, to strain all the people sitting in the stalls."

Brecht, Bertolt on acting and actors   

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

Brecht, Bertolt on media   

"What happens to the hole when the cheese is gone?"

Brecht, Bertolt on mystery   

"Don't tell me peace has broken out."

Brecht, Bertolt on peace
8 fans of this quote   

"What's breaking into a bank compared with founding a bank?"

Brecht, Bertolt on bankers and banking   

"It is easier to rob by setting up a bank than by holding up a bank clerk."

Brecht, Bertolt on bankers and banking   

"Poverty makes you sad as well as wise."

Brecht, Bertolt on poverty and the poor   

"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."

Brecht, Bertolt on reality   

"No one will improve your lot if you do not yourself."

Brecht, Bertolt on responsibility   

"Right is its own defense."

Brecht, Bertolt on right and rightness   

"Science knows only one commandment -- contribute to science."

Brecht, Bertolt on science   

"For once you must try not to shirk the facts: mankind is kept alive by bestial acts."

Brecht, Bertolt on sex
7 fans of this quote   

"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."

Brecht, Bertolt on charity   

"The world of knowledge takes a crazy turn when teachers themselves are taught to learn."

Brecht, Bertolt on teacher   

"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."

Brecht, Bertolt on theater   

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

Brecht, Bertolt on war
8 fans of this quote   

"Mixing one's wines may be a mistake, but old and new wisdom mix admirably."

Brecht, Bertolt on wisdom