82 quotes
Oh why do we not say the important things, it would be so easy, and we are damned because we do not.
Poems, 1913-1956 (1976)
Mixing one's wines may be a mistake, but old and new wisdom mix admirably.
Spring is noticed, if at all
By people sitting in railway trains.
Poems, 1913-1956 (1976)
Don't be afraid of death so much as an inadequate life.
The Mother (1930)
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.)
Dictionary of Contemporary Quotations (1976)
Show interest in her goodness — for no one can be good for long if goodness is not in demand.
The Good Person of Sezuan (1943)
War is like love, it always finds a way.
Mother Courage and Her Children (1939)
Let nothing be called natural
In an age of bloody confusion,
Ordered disorder, planned caprice,
And dehumanized humanity, lest all things
Be held unalterable!
The Exception and the Rule (1937)
Come in, dear wind, and be our guest
You too have neither home nor rest.
Poems, 1913-1956 (1976)
If art reflects life, it does so with special mirrors.
The Good Person of Sezuan (1943)
It is not enough to demand insight and informative images of reality from the theater. Our theater must stimulate a desire for understanding, a delight in changing reality.
Essays on the Art of Theater (1954)
For art to be 'unpolitical' means only to ally itself with the 'ruling' group.
A Short Organum for the Theatre (1949)
A man who strains himself on the stage is bound, if he is any good, to strain all the people sitting in the stalls.
People remain what they are even if their faces fall apart.
What is the burgling of a bank to the founding of a bank?
The Threepenny Opera (1928)
Little changes are the enemies of great changes.
Poems, 1913-1956 (1976)
Science has only one commandment: contribution.
Life of Galileo (1939)
Always the victor writes the history of the vanquished. He who beats distorts the faces of the beaten. The weaker depart from this world and the lies remain.
The Trial of Lucullus (1940)
I see with sympathy
The swollen veins on his brow, showing
How exhausting it is to be evil.
You may proclaim, good sirs, your fine philosophy
But till you feed us, right and wrong can wait!
The Threepenny Opera (1928)