82 quotes
For the task assigned them
Men aren't smart enough or sly
Any rogue can blind them
With a clever lie.
The Threepenny Opera (1928)
That's great art — Everything is self-evident. I am made to cry with those who cry, and laugh with those who laugh.
Entertainment or Education? (1936)
To live means to finesse the processes to which one is subjugated.
The law is simply and solely made for the exploitation of those who do not understand it or of those who, for naked need, cannot obey it.
The Threepenny Opera (1928)
Even the most blockheaded bureaucrat,
Provided he loves peace,
Is a greater lover of the arts
Than any so-called art-lover
Who loves the arts of war.
The headlong stream is termed violent
But the river bed hemming it in is
Termed violent by no one.
Poems, 1913-1956 (1976)
You don't need to pray to God any more when there are storms in the sky, but you do have to be insured.
The Mother (1930)
Those who lead the country into the abyss
Call ruling too difficult
For ordinary men.
For once you must try not to shirk the facts:
Mankind is kept alive by bestial acts.
The Threepenny Opera (1928)
Their peace and their war
Are like wind and storm.War grows from their peace.
Poems, 1913-1956 (1976)
The man who laughs has simply not yet had the terrible news.
Poems, 1913-1956 (1976)
With drooping shoulders
The majority sit hunched, their foreheads furrowed like
Stony ground that has been repeatedly ploughed-up to no purpose.
Poems, 1913-1956 (1976)
Worship with fulness of heart the weak memory of heaven!
It cannot trace
Either your name or your face
Nobody knows you're still living.
Poems, 1913-1956 (1976)
Society cannot share a common communication system so long as it is split into warring factions.
The Good Person of Sezuan (1943)
In the dark times
Will there also be singing?
Yes, there will also be singing
About the dark times.
Poems, 1913-1956 (1976)
The world of knowledge takes a crazy turn
When teachers themselves are taught to learn.
Life of Galileo (1939)
The more innocent they are, the more they deserve to be shot.
But something's missing (Aber etwas fehlt).
The main objective is to learn to think crudely. Crude thinking is the great one's thinking.
Dreigroschenroman (1934)
General, your tank
is a powerful vehicle
it smashes down forests
and crushes a hundred men.
but it has one defect:
it needs a driver.
Poems, 1913-1956 (1976)