text:
Bertolt Brecht

Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), commonly known as Bertolt Brecht, was a German Marxist dramatist, stage director and poet. He is remembered for the Distancing effect practice in performing arts (known in German as Verfremdungseffekt or V-Effekt).

1923–1938

 * People remain what they are even if their faces fall apart.
 * Garga, from In the Jungle of Cities [Im Dickicht der Städte] (1923), sc. 9; also translated as In the Swamp and Jungle of Cities.

 * But something's missing (Aber etwas fehlt).
 * Jim[my] Mahoney, in Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (1930)

 * A man who strains himself on the stage is bound, if he is any good, to strain all the people sitting in the stalls.
 * "Emphasis on Sport" in the Berliner Börsen-Courier (6 February 1926), as quoted in Brecht on Theatre (1964) edited and translated by John Willett.

 * The main objective is to learn to think crudely. Crude thinking is the great one's thinking.
 * Dreigroschenroman (1934), reprinted in Gesammelte Werke, vol. 13 (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1967), 916.

 * Do not treat me in this fashion. Don't leave me out. Have I not Always spoken the truth in my books? And now You treat me like a liar! I order you: Burn me!
 * A response to the Nazi book burnings, "The Burning of the Books" ("Die Bücherverbrennung", c. 1935)

 * The theater-goer in conventional dramatic theater says: Yes, I've felt that way, too. That's the way I am. That's life. That's the way it will always be. The suffering of this or that person grips me because there is no escape for him. That's great art — Everything is self-evident. I am made to cry with those who cry, and laugh with those who laugh. But the theater-goer in the epic theater says: I would never have thought that. You can't do that. That's very strange, practically unbelievable. That has to stop. The suffering of this or that person grips me because there is an escape for him. That's great art — nothing is self-evident. I am made to laugh about those who cry, and cry about those who laugh.
 * "Entertainment or Education?" (1936)

 * 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), Prologue

 * 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.
 * "The Popular and the Realistic" (written 1938, published 1958), as translated in Brecht on Theatre (1964) edited and translated by John Willett.

 * Those who lead the country into the abyss Call ruling too difficult For ordinary men.
 * "From a German War Primer" ("Catón de Guerra Alemán", 1938)

The Threepenny Opera (1928)

 * Quotations from Die Dreigroschenoper using primarily the translation by Desmond Vesey and Eric Bentley (1949; 1960) ISBN 0-8021-5039-X

 * First comes a full stomach, then comes ethics.

 * And the shark he has his teeth and There they are for all to see And Macheath he has his knife but No one knows where it may be.
 * "The Moritat of Mackie the Knife" in Prologue, p. 3
 * Translation note: A "moritat" (a word meaning both "muderous deed" and "ballad") is a street song telling of murderous crimes.
 * Lotte Lenya, "Foreword", p. xii
 * Variant translation: Oh the shark has pretty teeth dear, And he shows them pearly white Just a jack-knife has Macheath dear And he keeps it out of sight.
 * Marc Blitzstein translation; largely used for Louis Armstrong's and Bobby Darin's pop renditions of "The Ballad of Mack the Knife"
 * My business is too difficult. My business is trying to arouse human pity. There are 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. So it happens, for instance, that a man who sees another man on the street corner with only a stump for an arm will be so shocked the first time that he'll give him sixpence. But the second time it'll only be a threepenny bit. And if he sees him a third time, he'll hand him over cold-bloodedly to the police.
 * Peachum in Act 1, scene 1, pp. 5-6
 * Variant translation: 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 threepenny bit. And if he sees him a third time, he'll have him cold-bloodedly handed over to the police.

 * You may proclaim, good sirs, your fine philosophy But till you feed us, right and wrong can wait!
 * Macheath in "Second Threepenny-Finale"; Act 2, scene 3, p. 67
 * Variant translations:
 * However much you twist, whatever lies you tell Food is the first thing, morals follow on.
 * Used by the Pet Shop Boys, in "What Keeps Mankind Alive?", Can You Forgive Her (1993 EP)
 * Food first, then morality.

 * For once you must try not to shirk the facts: Mankind is kept alive by bestial acts.
 * "What Keeps Mankind Alive?" Act 2, sc. 6

 * 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.
 * Polly Peachum, in Act 3, scene 1, p. 74
 * Variant translation: 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.

 * For the task assigned them Men aren't smart enough or sly Any rogue can blind them With a clever lie.
 * Polly Peachum, in "The Song of the Futility of All Human Endeavor"; Act 3, scene 1, p. 75

 * What is the burgling of a bank to the founding of a bank?
 * Macheath, in Act 3, scene 3, p. 92

Happy End (1929)

 * Mr. Wurlitzer, I am now in a position to receive your organ.

The Mother (1930)

 * Don't be afraid of death so much as an inadequate life.
 * Pelagea Vlasova in Scene 10

 * You don't need to pray to God any more when there are storms in the sky, but you do have to be insured.
 * Pelagea Vlasova in Scene 10

 * Those who are weak don't fight. Those who are stronger might fight for an hour. Those who are stronger still might fight for many years. The strongest fight their whole life. They are the indispensable ones.
 * "In Praise of the Fighters" (song)
 * Variant translation: There are men who struggle for a day and they are good. There are men who struggle for a year and they are better.  There are men who struggle many years, and they are better still. But there are those who struggle all their lives: These are the indispensable ones.
 * As quoted in Democracy Unbound : Progressive Challenges to the Two Party System (1997) by David Reynolds; also quoted by Cuban musician and poet Silvio Rodríguez before his song "Sueño con serpientes".
 * Also quoted by Eduardo Galeano (Uruguayan writer) to describe Nestor Kirchner as he received the notice of his death.

1939–1956

 * Ah, what an age it is When to speak of trees is almost a crime For it is a kind of silence about injustice!
 * "To Posterity" (1939) as translated by H. R. Hays (1947)

 * 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.
 *  (1940), Brecht Collected Plays, vol. 4, p. 386.

 * Do not rejoice in his defeat, you men. For though the world has stood up and stopped the bastard, the bitch that bore him is in heat again.
 * Referring to Arturo Ui (representing Adolf Hitler), in The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (1941)

 * To live means to finesse the processes to which one is subjugated.
 * "Notes on Philosophy" in On Politics and Society (1941).

 * Mixing one's wines may be a mistake, but old and new wisdom mix admirably.
 * The Singer, in The Caucasian Chalk Circle (1944), Prologue

 * Mitfühlend sehe ich Die geschwollenen Stirnadern, andeutend Wie anstrengend es ist, böse zu sein.
 * I see with sympathy The swollen veins on his brow, showing How exhausting it is to be evil.
 * "The Mask of Evil" ("Die Maske des Bösen", 1942), as translated in Brecht on Brecht: An Improvisation (1967) by George Tabori, p. 14

 * 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. Our audience must experience not only the ways to free Prometheus, but be schooled in the very desire to free him. Theater must teach all the pleasures and joys of discovery, all the feelings of triumph associated with liberation.
 * Essays on the Art of Theater (1954).

 * The more innocent they are, the more they deserve to be shot.
 * On defendants in the Moscow Trials and on innocents betrayed by Communist Party members, as recounted by philosopher Sidney Hook, as quoted in Intellectuals (1990) by Paul Johnson, p. 190; though this might easily be interpreted as implying that anyone who had failed to conspire against Stalin deserved to be shot, Hook implies that he meant that the betrayal of innocents was justified. Henry Pachter is also quoted in Intellectuals as saying that Brecht had made similar remarks in his presence, and had added "Fifty years hence the communists will have forgotten Stalin, but I want to be sure that they will still read Brecht. Therefore I cannot separate myself from the Party."

 * Some party hack decreed that the people had lost the government's confidence and could only regain it with redoubled effort. If that is the case, would it not be simpler, If the government simply dissolved the people And elected another?
 * "The Solution" ["Die Lösung", c. 1953), as translated in Brecht on Brecht : An Improvisation (1967) by George Tabori, p. 17
 * Variant translation:
 * The Secretary of the Writers Union Had flyers distributed in Stalin Way that said That the People had frivolously Thrown away the Government's Confidence And that they could only regain it Through Redoubled Work. But wouldn't it be Simpler if the Government Simply dissolved the People And elected another?

Life of Galileo (1939)

 * Leben des Galilei (1939) using primarily the translation by Arvid Englind, in the version brought to stage by Charles Laughton, working in collaboration with Brecht; also translated as Galileo. ISBN 0-8021-3059-3

 * The world of knowledge takes a crazy turn When teachers themselves are taught to learn.
 * Scene 6

 * Andrea: Unhappy is the land that breeds no hero. Galileo: No, Andrea: Unhappy is the land that needs a hero. [Unglücklich das Land, das Helden nötig hat.]
 * Scene 12, p. 115
 * Variant translations: Pity the country that needs heroes. Unhappy the land that is in need of heroes

 * Science has only one commandment: contribution.
 * Andrea, in Scene 13, p. 122
 * Variant: Science knows only one commandment — contribute to science.
 * As translated by Howard Brenton (1980)

 * The aim of science is not to open the door to infinite wisdom, but to set some limit on infinite error.

Mother Courage and Her Children (1939)

 * Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder (1939); as translated by Eric Bentley (1955), ISBN 0-8021-3082-8

 * What they could do with round here is a good war. What else can you expect with peace running wild all over the place? You know what the trouble with peace is? No organization.
 * The Sergeant, in Scene 1

 * Komm, geh mit angeln, sagte der Fischer zum Wurm.
 * Come fishing with me, said the fisherman to the worm.
 * Mutter Courage to the army recruiter when he tries to recruit her son in Scene 1

 * War is like love, it always finds a way.
 * The Chaplain, in Scene 6, p. 76

 * Sometimes I have visions of myself driving through hell, selling sulphur and brimstone, or through heaven peddling refreshments to the roaming souls. If me and the children I've got left could find a place where there's no shooting, I wouldn't mind a few years of peace and quiet.
 * Mother Courage

The Good Person of Sezuan (1943)

 * Der gute Mensch von Sezuan [The Good Person of Sezuan] using the translation The Good Woman of Setzuan (1943) by Eric Bentley ISBN 0-394-17109-8

 * Bezeig du Interesse an ihrer Güte, denn keiner kann lang gut sein, wenn nicht Güte verlangt wird.
 * Translation: Show interest in her goodness — for no one can be good for long if goodness is not in demand.
 * First God, in Scene 1a, p. 38

A Short Organum for the Theatre (1949)

 * Kleines Organon für das Theater (written 1948, published 1949), as translated in Brecht on Theatre (1964), translated and edited by John Willett

 * 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.
 * ¶ 35

 * Society cannot share a common communication system so long as it is split into warring factions.
 * ¶ 55

 * Will der Schauspieler nicht Papagei oder Affe sein, muß er sich das Wissen der Zeit über das menschliche Zusammenleben aneignen, indem er die Kämpfe der Klassen mitkämpft. Dies mag manchem wie eine Erniedrigung vorkommen, da er die Kunst, ist die Bezahlung geregelt, in die höchsten Sphären versetzt; aber die höchsten Entscheidungen für das Menschengeschlecht werden auf der Erde ausgekämpft, nicht in den Lüften; im »Äußern«, nicht in den Köpfen. Über den kämpfenden Klassen kann niemand stehen, da niemand über den Menschen stehen kann. Die Gesellschaft hat kein gemeinsames Sprachrohr, solange sie in kämpfende Klassen gespalten ist. So heißt unparteiisch sein für die Kunst nur: zur herrschenden Partei gehören.
 * Unless an actor is satisfied to be a parrot or a monkey he must master our period's knowledge of human social life by himself joining the war of the classes. Some people may feel this is degrading, because they rank art, once the money side has been settled, as one of the highest things; but mankind's highest decisions are in fact fought out on earth, not in the heavens; in the 'external world', not inside people's heads. Nobody can stand above the warring classes, for nobody can stand above the human race. Society cannot share a common communication system so long as it is split into warring classes. Thus for art to be 'unpolitical' means only to ally itself with the 'ruling' group.
 * ¶ 55

 * If art reflects life, it does so with special mirrors.
 * ¶ 73

 * 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.

Posthumous publication

 * Firebugs dragging their gasoline bottles Are approaching the Academy of Arts, with a grin. And so, instead of embracing them, Let us demand the freedom of the elbow To knock the bottles out of their filthy hands. 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.
 * "Freedom for Whom", as translated in Brecht on Brecht : An Improvisation (1967) by George Tabori, p. 18

 * 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.)
 * As quoted in Dictionary of Contemporary Quotations (1976) by John Gordon Burke and Ned Kehde, p. 224, also in The Book of Positive Quotations (2007) by John Cook, p. 390

 * Engel verführt man gar nicht oder schnell. Verzieh ihn einfach in den Hauseingang Steck ihm die Zunge in den Mund und lang Ihm untern Rock, bis er sich naß macht, stell Ihm das Gesicht zur Wand, heb ihm den Rock Und fick ihn. Stöhnt er irgendwie beklommen Dann halt ihn fest und laß ihn zweimal kommen Sonst hat er dir am Ende einen Schock. Ermahn ihn, dass er gut den Hintern schwenkt Heiß ihn dir ruhig an die Hoden fassen Sag ihm, er darf sich furchtlos fallen lassen Dieweil er zwischen Erd und Himmel hängt – Doch schau ihm nicht beim Ficken ins Gesicht Und seine Flügel, Mensch, zerdrück sie nicht.
 * [Angels can not be seduced at all or quickly. Pull him into the entryway, stick your tongue in his mouth and reach under his robe, til he gets wet; put his face to the wall, lift his robe and fuck him. If he stares in anguish then hold him tightly and let him come two times; otherwise, by the end, he'll be in shock. Admonish him so he sways his butt; let him know he's free to grab your balls. Tell him he can fall without fear while he is hanging between earth and heaven – but don't look him in the face while you are fuck him and, for heaven's sake, don't crush his wings.]
 * "About the Seduction of an Angel" [Über die Verführung von Engeln]; the poem actually stems from Brecht's own pen, but Brecht signed it with the name of his contemporary, fellow German author (in exile) Thomas Mann
 * As cited in Gregory Alexander Knott, Arnold Stadler: Heimat and Metaphysics, Weidler Buchverlag, 2009, p. 30.

Poems, 1913-1956 (1976)

 * Oh why do we not say the important things, it would be so easy, and we are damned because we do not.
 * "Song about my mother" [Lied von meiner Mutter], from "Thirteen Psalms" (1920), trans. Christopher Middleton in Poems, 1913-1956, p. 40

 * And when she was finished they laid her in earth Flowers growing, butterflies juggling over her... She, so light, barely pressed the earth down How much pain it took to make her as light as that!
 * "To my mother" [Meiner Mutter] (May 1920), trans. John Willett in Poems, 1913-1956, p. 49

 * 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.
 * "Great hymn of thanksgiving" [Grosser Dankchoral] (1920) from The Devotions (1922-1927); trans. Karl Neumann in Poems, 1913-1956, p. 74

 * Oh the harsh snarl of guitar strings roaring! Heavenly distensions of our throats! Trousers stiff with dirt and love! Such whoring! Long green slimy nights: we were like stoats.
 * "Those days of my youth" [O, Ihr Zeiten meiner Jugend] (1921), trans. John Willett in Poems, 1913-1956, p. 76

 * Marie Farrar: month of birth, April Died in the Meissen penitentiary An unwed mother, judged by the law, she will Show you how all that lives, lives frailly. You who bear your sons in laundered linen sheets And call your pregnancies a "blessed" state Should never damn the outcast and the weak: Her sin was heavy, but her suffering great. Therefore, I beg, make not your anger manifest For all that lives needs help from all the rest.
 * "Of the infanticide Marie Farrar" [Von der Kindesmörderin Marie Farrar] (1920) from Devotions (1922-1927); trans. Sidney H. Bremer in Poems, 1913-1956, p. 92

 * Here today we huddle tight As the darkest heathens might The snow falls chilly on our skin The snow is forcing its way in. Hush, snow, come in with us to dwell: We were thrown out by Heaven as well.
 * "Christmas legend" [Weinachtslegende] (1923), Berliner Börsen-Courier (25 December 1924); trans. in Poems, 1913-1956, p. 99

 * Come in, dear wind, and be our guest You too have neither home nor rest.
 * "Christmas legend" [Weinachtslegende] (1923) Berliner Börsen-Courier (25 December 1924); trans in Poems, 1913-1956, p. 100

 * The rain Never falls upwards. When the wound Stops hurting What hurts is The scar.
 * "Poems Belonging to a Reader for Those who Live in Cities" [Zum Lesebuch für Städtebewohner gehörige Gedichte] (1926-1927), poem 10, trans. Frank Jones in Poems, 1913-1956, p. 148

 * Spring is noticed, if at all By people sitting in railway trains.
 * "Concerning spring" [Über das Frühjahr] (1928), Uhu, Berlin, IV, 6 (March 1928); trans. Christopher Middleton in Poems, 1913-1956, p. 158

 * On golden chairs Sitting at ease, you paid for the songs which we chanted To those less lucky. You paid us for drying their tears And for comforting all those whom you had wounded.
 * "Song of the cut-price poets" [Lied der preiswerten Lyriker] (1927/1933) from Songs Poems Choruses (1934); in Poems, 1913-1956, p. 161

 * All the gang of those who rule us Hope our quarrels never stop Helping them to split and fool us So they can remain on top.
 * "Solidarity song" [Solidaritätslied] (1931), trans. John Willett in Poems, 1913-1956, p. 186

 * Of all the works of man I like best Those which have been used. The copper pots with their dents and flattened edges The knives and forks whose wooden handles Have been worn away by many hands: such forms Seemed to me the noblest.
 * "Of all the works of man" [Von allen Werken] (c. 1932) in Poems, 1913-1956, p. 192

 * Wie lange Dauern die Werke? So lange Als bis sie fertig sind.
 * How long Do works endure? As long As they are not completed.
 * "About the way to construct enduring works" [Über die Bauart langdauernder Werke] (1932), trans. Frank Jones in Poems, 1913-1956, p. 193

 * With drooping shoulders The majority sit hunched, their foreheads furrowed like Stony ground that has been repeatedly ploughed-up to no purpose.
 * "Speech to Danish working-class actors on the art of observation" [Rede an dänische Arbeiterschauspieler über die Kunst der Beobachtung]] (1934), from The Messingkauf Poems, published in Versuche 14 (1955); trans. John Willett in Poems, 1913-1956, p. 235

 * People will observe you to see How well you have observed. The man who only observes himself however never gains Knowledge of men. He is too anxious To hide himself from himself. And nobody is Cleverer than he himself is.
 * "Speech to Danish working-class actors on the art of observation" [Rede an dänische Arbeiterschauspieler über die Kunst der Beobachtung] (1934), from The Messingkauf Poems, published in Versuche 14 (1955); trans. John Willett in Poems, 1913-1956, pp. 235-236

 * Play your part creatively in all the struggles Of men of your time, thereby Helping, with the seriousness of study and the cheerfulness of knowledge To turn the struggle into common experience and Justice into a passion.
 * "Speech to Danish working-class actors on the art of observation" [Rede an dänische Arbeiterschauspieler über die Kunst der Beobachtung] (1934), from The Messingkauf Poems, published in Versuche 14 (1955); trans. John Willett in Poems, 1913-1956, p. 238

 * Events cast long shadows before. One such event would be a war. But how are shadows to be seen When total darkness fills the screen?
 * "Alphabet" [Alfabet] from "Five Children's Songs" (1934), trans. John Willett in Poems, 1913-1956, p. 239

 * The plum tree in the yard's so small It's hardly like a tree at all. Yet there it is, railed round To keep it safe and sound. The poor thing can't grow any more Though if it could it would for sure. There's nothing to be done It gets too little sun.
 * "The Plum Tree" [Der Pfaumenbaum] (1934) from The Svendborg Poems [Svendborger Gedichte] (1939); in Poems, 1913-1956, p. 243

 * When evil-doing comes like falling rain, nobody calls out "stop!" When crimes begin to pile up they become invisible. When sufferings become unendurable the cries are no longer heard. The cries, too, fall like rain in summer.
 * "When evil-doing comes like falling rain" [Wenn die Untat kommt, wie der Regen fällt] (1935), trans. John Willett in Poems, 1913-1956, p. 247

 * Who built Thebes of the 7 gates ? In the books you will read the names of kings. Did the kings haul up the lumps of rock ? And Babylon, many times demolished, Who raised it up so many times ?  In what houses of gold glittering Lima did its builders live ? Where, the evening that the Great Wall of China was finished, did the masons go?  Great Rome is full of triumphal arches. Who erected them?  Over whom did the Caesars triumph?  Had Byzantium, much praised in song, only palaces for its inhabitants ?  Even in fabled Atlantis, the night that the ocean engulfed it, The drowning still cried out for their slaves.  The young Alexander conquered India. Was he alone?  Caesar beat the Gauls. Did he not even have a cook with him?  Philip of Spain wept when his armada went down. Was he the only one to weep?  Frederick the Second won the Seven Years' War. Who else won it?  Every page a victory. Who cooked the feast for the victors?  Every ten years a great man. Who paid the bill?  So many reports.  So many questions.
 * "Questions from a worker who reads" [Fragen eines lesenden Arbeiters] (1935) from The Svendborg Poems (1939); trans. Michael Hamburger in Poems, 1913-1956, p. 252

 * The headlong stream is termed violent But the river bed hemming it in is Termed violent by no one.
 * "On Violence" [Über die Gewalt] (1930s), trans. John Willett in Poems, 1913-1956, p. 276

 * Little changes are the enemies of great changes.
 * "Quotation" [Zitat] (1930s), trans. Michael Morley in Poems, 1913-1956, p. 277

 * Their peace and their war Are like wind and storm. War grows from their peace.
 * "Those at the top say: peace and war" [Die Oberen sagen: Friede und Krieg] from "A German War Primer" [Deutsche Kriegsfibel] (1937), trans. Lee Baxendall in Poems, 1913-1956, p. 288

 * 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.
 * "General, Your Tank Is a Powerful Vehicle", in "From a German War Primer", part of the Svendborg Poems (1939); as translated by Lee Baxandall in Poems, 1913-1956, p. 289

 * General, man is very useful. He can fly and he can kill. But he has one defect: He can think.
 * "General, Your Tank Is a Powerful Vehicle", in "From a German War Primer", part of the Svendborg Poems (1939); as translated by Lee Baxandall in Poems, 1913-1956, p. 289

 * The man who laughs has simply not yet had the terrible news.
 * "To Those Born Later", part of the Svendborg Poems (1939)
 * quoted in Poems, 1913-1956, p. 318
 * Variation: He who laughs last has not yet heard the bad news.
 * German: Wer jetzt noch lacht, hat die neuesten Nachrichten noch nicht gehört.

 * In den finsteren Zeiten Wird da auch gesungen werden? Da wird auch gesungen werden. Von den finsteren Zeiten.
 * In the dark times Will there also be singing? Yes, there will also be singing About the dark times.
 * "Motto to the 'Svendborg Poems' " [Motto der 'Svendborger Gedichte'] (1939), trans. John Willett in Poems, 1913-1956, p. 320

 * This is the year which people will talk about This is the year which people will be silent about. The old see the young die. The foolish see the wise die. The earth no longer produces, it devours. The sky hurls down no rain, only iron.
 * "Finland 1940" [Finnland 1940] (1940), trans. Sammy McLean in Poems, 1913-1956, p. 350

 * Every day, to earn my daily bread I go to the market where lies are bought Hopefully I take up my place among the sellers.
 * "Hollywood" (1942)
 * quoted in Poems, 1913-1956, p. 382

 * High above the lake a bomber flies. From the rowing boats Children look up, women, an old man. From a distance They appear like young starlings, their beaks Wide open for food.
 * "This Summer's Sky" [Der Himmel dieses Sommers], (1953), trans. Michael Hamburger in Poems, 1913-1956, p. 444

 * And I always thought: the very simplest words Must be enough. When I say what things are like Everyone's heart must be torn to shreds. That you'll go down if you don't stand up for yourself Surely you see that.
 * "And I always thought" [Und ich dachte immer] (c. 1956), trans. Michael Hamburger in Poems, 1913-1956, p. 452

Disputed

 * Art is not a mirror to hold up to society, but a hammer with which to shape it.
 * Mistakenly attributed to Vladimir Mayakovsky in The Political Psyche (1993) by Andrew Samuels, p. 9; mistakenly attributed to Brecht in Paulo Freire: A Critical Encounter (1993) by Peter McLaren and Peter Leonard, p. 80; variant translation: "Art is not a mirror held up to society, but a hammer with which to shape it."
 * First recorded in Leon Trotsky, Literature and Revolution (1924; edited by William Keach (2005), Ch. 4: Futurism, p. 120): "Art, it is said, is not a mirror, but a hammer: it does not reflect, it shapes."

 * The worst illiterate is the political illiterate, he doesn’t hear, doesn’t speak, nor participates in the political events. He doesn’t know the cost of life, the price of the bean, of the fish, of the flour, of the rent, of the shoes and of the medicine, all depends on political decisions. The political illiterate is so stupid that he is proud and swells his chest saying that he hates politics. The imbecile doesn’t know that, from his political ignorance is born the prostitute, the abandoned child, and the worst thieves of all, the bad politician, corrupted and flunky of the national and multinational companies.
 * First recorded in Terra Nossa: Newsletter of Project Abraço, North Americans in Solidarity with the People of Brazil, Vols. 1–7, Resource Center for Nonviolence, 1988, p. 42. No citation to a book by Brecht is given.

 * If you fight you might lose, if you don’t you have already lost.

Misattributed

 * What if they gave a war and no one came? Then the war will come to you.
 * Amalgamation of Carl Sandburg's quote "Sometime they’ll give a war and nobody will come" with a sentence from Brecht's Koloman Wallisch Kantate: "When the people are disarmed / War will come" ("Wenn das Volk entwaffnet ist / Kommt der Krieg"). - Source

Quotes about Brecht

 * There is a wonderful sentence, a statement, by one of Bertolt Brecht's characters, he says: "I am that man that goes around with a brick in his hand, to show the world how his house was." And that's the way I feel about my books in a way, that they are my bricks. I can show people what I believe my world was, so I've not lost it.
 * 1990 interview included in Conversations with Isabel Allende (1999)

 * Yesterday, a long conversation in Brecht’s sickroom about my essay "The Author as Producer." Brecht thought the theory I develop in the essay — that the attainment of technical progress in literature eventually changes the function of art forms (hence also of the intellectual means of production) and is therefore a criterion for judging the revolutionary function of literary works — applies to artists of only one type, the writers of the upper bourgeoisie, among whom he counts himself. "For such a writer," he said, "there really exists a point of solidarity with the interests of the proletariat: it is the point at which he can develop his own means of production. Because he identifies with the proletariat at this point, he is proletarianized — completely so — at this same point, i.e. as a producer. And his complete proletarianization at this one point establishes his solidarity with the proletariat all along the line."
 * Walter Benjamin, Diary entry, July 4, 1934

 * I will quote Brecht: “I’m on the side of the people.”
 * Edwidge Danticat Interview (2003)

 * I turned to Brecht and asked him why, if he felt the way he did about Jerome and the other American Communists, he kept on collaborating with them, particularly in view of their apparent approval or indifference to what was happening in the Soviet Union. ... Brecht shrugged his shoulders and kept on making invidious remarks about the American Communist Party and asserted that only the Soviet Union and its Communist Party mattered. ... But I argued ... it was the Kremlin and above all Stalin himself who were responsible for the arrest and imprisonment of the opposition and their dependents. It was at this point that he said in words I have never forgotten, 'As for them, the more innocent they are, the more they deserve to be shot.' I was so taken aback that I thought I had misheard him. 'What are you saying?' I asked. He calmly repeated himself, 'The more innocent they are, the more they deserve to be shot.' ... I was stunned by his words. 'Why? Why?' I exclaimed. All he did was smile at me in a nervous sort of way. I waited, but he said nothing after I repeated my question. I got up, went into the next room, and fetched his hat and coat. When I returned, he was still sitting in his chair, holding a drink in his hand. When he saw me with his hat and coat, he looked surprised. He put his glass down, rose, and with a sickly smile took his hat and coat and left. Neither of us said a word. I never saw him again.
 * Sidney Hook, Out of Step (1985)

 * I am working for the courage to admit the truth that Bertolt Brecht has written; he says, "It takes courage to say that the good were defeated not because they were good, but because they were weak." I cherish the mercy and the grace of women’s work. But I know there is new work that we must undertake as well: that new work will make defeat detestable to us. That new women’s work will mean we will not die trying to stand up: we will live that way: standing up. I came too late to help my mother to her feet. By way of everlasting thanks to all of the women who have helped me to stay alive I am working never to be late again.
 * June Jordan, "Many Rivers To Cross" (1981)

 * I've been thinking about Brecht's comment on creating apolitical art: it's like painting a still life on a sinking ship, he said.
 * Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz "While Patriarchy Explodes: Writing In A Time Of Crisis" in The Issue is Power: Essays on Women, Jews, Violence and Resistance (1992)

 * I began to write poetry in English before I could properly speak or write. Since I wrote free verse in ordinary speech, patterning my style after Bertolt Brecht, and getting effects by sharply contrasting images and striking sound patterns, I could achieve some sort of effect with the most primitive means.
 * Gerda Lerner, Why History Matters: Life and Thought (1997)

 * In my conscious effort to become an American writer, I gave up my German literary models-Thomas Mann, Knut Hamsun, Karl Kraus. I read all the O. Henry Award-winning short-story collections of the past decade, Hemingway, Dos Passos and Faulkner. Richard Wright's work struck me with elemental force-he spoke from the gut in a way I wished I could speak, but that seemed utterly unobtainable to me at that time. Carl and I read Carl Sandburg, Vachel Lindsay and Walt Whitman aloud to each other. The only German author I was not willing to give up was Bertolt Brecht, whose work on the emigration experience spoke to me directly and powerfully. I was determined that Carl must learn to appreciate Brecht as I did. I developed the ability to do simultaneous translation, reading in German and speaking in English, but I never did get Brecht's poetic quality right until much later, when I translated some of his work in earnest and with care, in writing...Brecht wrote eloquently about the cost paid by the writer forced to abandon his language.
 * Gerda Lerner, Fireweed: A Political Autobiography (2002)

 * In 1935 German communist poet and playwright Bertolt Brecht wrote an essay, "Writing the Truth: Five Difficulties," about the challenges facing writers during a time of political repression and manipulation. He said, "The writer who wishes to combat lies and ignorance and to write the truth must overcome at least five difficulties." These were "the courage to write the truth when truth is everywhere opposed; the keenness to recognize it, although it is everywhere concealed; the skill to manipulate it as a weapon; the judgment to select those in whose hands it will be effective; and the cunning to spread the truth among such persons." Brecht wrote, "We must tell the truth about evil conditions to those for whom the conditions are worst, and we must also learn the truth from them. We must address not only people who hold certain views, but people who, because of their situation, should hold these views....Even the hangmen can be addressed when the payment for hanging stops, or when the work becomes too dangerous." If people don't hold the views we expect their lives to generate, we need to listen more deeply, listen to the layers of stories underlying the ones they tell, until we find the layer where our truths meet. Finally, Brecht speaks of cunning, the skill to evade repression but also to work around people's resistance to the truth, to make intentional choices about whether and how to encode our messages, based entirely on what will be most effective. Some radicals insist on using the clichéd language of bloody chains and groaning masses, phrases that make them feel militant but limit their audience. Sometimes it's more effective to say "profit-driven society" instead of "capitalism," "making war on people to steal their stuff" instead of "imperialism." Brecht asked writers to act based on the results we want to achieve, not just on what makes us feel good in the moment.
 * Aurora Levins Morales Medicine Stories: Essays for Radicals (2019 edition)

 * As a youth I enjoyed — indeed, like most of my contemporaries, revered — the agitprop plays of Brecht, and his indictments of Capitalism. It later occurred to me that his plays were copyrighted, and that he, like I, was living through the operations of that same free market. His protestations were not borne out by his actions, neither could they be. Why, then, did he profess Communism? Because it sold. The public’s endorsement of his plays kept him alive; as Marx was kept alive by the fortune Engels’s family had made selling furniture; as universities, established and funded by the Free Enterprise system — which is to say by the accrual of wealth — house, support, and coddle generations of the young in their dissertations on the evils of America.
 * David Mamet, The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture (2011). New York, Sentinel, p. 2

 * this sequence has that title coming from a poem by Bertolt Brecht, the great German playwright and poet, a revolutionary playwright and poet, I should add, who wrote a poem in which he said, “What kind of times are these, when it seems almost a crime to talk about trees, because it means keeping silent about so many evil deeds.” And so, I called the whole sequence “What Kind of Times Are These.” And in it, I was just playing with the sense of what it was like—what it is like to be alive in this country in the 1990s—the encroaching power of the capitalist economy, the denial of any kind of counterbalancing past, the wiping out of history, and also the need to find happiness and pleasure in the midst of such dark times, and how that can carry you through to be aware, as open-eyed as you can of what is going on in your time, and at the same time, as Rosa Luxemburg advised, to seize every beautiful cloud and every joyful moment. And so, this little sequence of poems came out of that kind of musing.
 * Adrienne Rich Interview with Democracy Now (1997)

 * I love Brecht and Fassbinder, of course.
 * Adania Shibli Interview (2020)

title: Bertolt Brecht


text:
White Rose

The White Rose (German: Die Weiße Rose), was a non-violent, intellectual resistance group in Nazi Germany led by a group of students from the University of Munich, including Sophie Scholl, Hans Scholl and Alexander Schmorell. The group conducted an anonymous leaflet and graffiti campaign that called for active opposition to the Nazi regime. Their activities started in Munich on 27 June 1942, and ended with the arrest of the core group by the Gestapo on 18 February 1943. They, as well as other members and supporters of the group who carried on distributing the pamphlets, faced show trials by the Nazi People's Court (Volksgerichtshof), and many of them were sentenced to death or imprisonment.

 * See also:
 * Sophie Scholl

Quotes

 * Nothing is so unworthy of a civilised nation as allowing itself to be governed without opposition by an irresponsible clique that has yielded to base instinct. It is certain that today every honest German is ashamed of his government. Who among us has any conception of the dimensions of shame that will befall us and our children when one day the veil has fallen from our eyes and the most horrible of crimes — crimes that infinitely outdistance every human measure — reach the light of day?
 * First leaflet

 * Up until the outbreak of the war the larger part of the German people was blinded; the Nazis did not show themselves in their true aspect. But now, now that we have recognised them for what they are, it must be the sole and first duty, the holiest duty of every German to destroy these beasts.
 * Second leaflet

 * It is impossible to engage in intellectual discourse with National Socialist Philosophy, for if there were such an entity, one would have to try by means of analysis and discussion either to prove its validity or to combat it. In actuality, however, we face a totally different situation. At its very inception this movement depended on the deception and betrayal of one's fellow man; even at that time it was inwardly corrupt and could support itself only by constant lies.
 * Second leaflet

 * Many, perhaps most, of the readers of these leaflets do not see clearly how they can practice an effective opposition. They do not see any avenues open to them. We want to try to show them that everyone is in a position to contribute to the overthrow of this system.
 * Third leaflet

 * Every word that comes from Hitler's mouth is a lie. When he says peace, he means war, and when he blasphemously uses the name of the Almighty, he means the power of evil, the fallen angel, Satan. His mouth is the foul-smelling maw of Hell, and his might is at bottom accursed. True, we must conduct a struggle against the National Socialist terrorist state with rational means; but whoever today still doubts the reality, the existence of demonic powers, has failed by a wide margin to understand the metaphysical background of this war.
 * Fourth Leaflet

 * Though we know that National Socialist power must be broken by military means, we are trying to achieve a renewal from within of the severely wounded German spirit. This rebirth must be preceded, however, by the clear recognition of all the guilt with which the German people have burdened themselves, and by an uncompromising battle against Hitler and his all too many minions, party members, Quislings, and the like. With total brutality the chasm that separates the better portion of the nation from everything that is opened wide. For Hitler and his followers there is no punishment on this Earth commensurate with their crimes. But out of love for coming generations we must make an example after the conclusion of the war, so that no one will ever again have the slightest urge to try a similar action.
 * Fourth Leaflet

 * Wir schweigen nicht, wir sind Euer böses Gewissen; die Weiße Rose läßt Euch keine Ruhe!
 * We will not be silent. We are your bad conscience. The White Rose will not leave you in peace!
 * Fourth Leaflet

 * Der imperialistische Machtgedanke muß, von welcher Seite er auch kommen möge, für alle Zeit unschädlich gemacht werden.
 * The imperialist ideology of force, from whatever side it comes, must be shattered for all time.
 * Fifth leaflet

 * Freedom and honour! For ten long years Hitler and his coadjutor have manhandled, squeezed, twisted, and debased these two splendid German words to the point of nausea, as only dilettantes can, casting the highest values of a nation before swine. They have sufficiently demonstrated in the ten years of destruction of all material and intellectual freedom, of all moral substance among the German people, what they understand by freedom and honour. The frightful bloodbath has opened the eyes of even the stupidest German — it is a slaughter which they arranged in the name of "freedom and honour of the German nation" throughout Europe, and which they daily start anew.
 * Sixth leaflet

 * Shaken and broken, our people behold the loss of the men of Stalingrad. Three hundred and thirty thousand German men have been senselessly and irresponsibly driven to death and destruction by the inspired strategy of our World War I Private First Class. Führer, we thank you!
 * Variant translation: Our People stand shocked in front of the downfall of the men of Stalingrad. Three hundred thousand men were hounded into death and doom without sense or responsibility by the work of the world-war private. Führer, we thank you!
 * Sixth leaflet

Quotes about the White Rose

 * It is possibly the most spectacular moment of resistance that I can think of in the 20th Century... The fact that five little kids, in the mouth of the wolf, where it really counted, had the tremendous courage to do what they did, is spectacular to me. I know that the world is better for them having been there, but I don't know why.
 * Lillian Garrett-Groag in Newsday (22 February 1993)

 * Of course, the terrible things I heard from the Nuremberg Trials, about the six million Jews and the people from other races who were killed, were facts that shocked me deeply. But I wasn't able to see the connection with my own past. I was satisfied that I wasn't personally to blame and that I hadn't known about those things. I wasn't aware of the extent. But one day I went past the memorial plaque which had been put up for Sophie Scholl in Franz Josef Strasse, and I saw that she was born the same year as me, and she was executed the same year I started working for Hitler. And at that moment I actually sensed that it was no excuse to be young, and that it would have been possible to find things out.
 * Traudl Junge, Hitler's personal secretary, in Im toten Winkel - Hitlers Sekretärin (2002) [Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary]

 * The tolerant and open atmosphere of their childhood had enabled them to see through Hitler's platitudes at the Nuremberg Rally, when the brother and sister were members of Nazi youth organizations. Nearly all their peers were completely won over by the Führer, whereas Hans and Sophie had other, higher expectations of human nature, not shared by their comrades, against which they could measure Hitler.
 * Alice Miller on Sophie and Hans Scholl's resistance to the social engineering of the Nazi regime, in Thou Shalt Not be Aware (1984).

 * You can't really measure the effect of this kind of resistance in whether or not X number of bridges were blown up or a regime fell... The White Rose really has a more symbolic value, but that's a very important value.
 * Jud Newborn in Newsday (22 February 1993)

 * Somebody, after all, had to make a start. What we wrote and said is also believed by many others. They just don't dare express themselves as we did.
 * Sophie Scholl, in a statement to the Volksgerichtshof [People's Court] of Judge Roland Freisler (21 February 1943)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: White Rose


text:
Wikiquote talk:Spellings

That's all well and good, but most books by British authors are Americanized (and it's not inconceivable that some American books have been Anglicised) - if an American puts in a quote from an American edition of a book, is it not better to use the exact quote, so that we have a verified quote? -- Jimregan 19:02, 21 Apr 2004 (UTC)

That's rather silly, isn't it, so long as the prevailing mores here is to enter quotes without any kind of source whatsoever. More to the point, perhaps, on the spelling issue is the fact that there are indeed other people in the world than Americans and English (or British) authors. And what does one do with translations? --212.142.33.101 15:36, 31 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Concerns about this article
I reverted the recent addition of a personal comment (by 68.62.13.214) to this article, but I realized this entire article sounds a bit chatty in its current state, and really only addresses verbal quotes (whose official spelling is necessarily harder to determine, unless one has a published version).

I propose to rewrite the article in more of a wiki "help" style, with the following major points:

 * Verified quotes (i.e., quotes with official published sources, which should be cited) should always follow their published spellings.
 * Attributed quotes should follow their original spelling, where known, or the practice of the quotee's country, where an official spelling is not known.
 * If original spellings lead to confusion (e.g., Chaucerian English), sub-bullets can provide a modern "translation", whose spellings should follow the above two guidelines.
 * Speeches and cinematic dialog, which are often not printed, should be rendered using the style of the speaker's dialect wherever possible.

This avoids the false dichotomy of American vs. British spelling, as there are many other English-speaking countries with their own variations, as well as minor variations within the U.S. and UK themselves. This also provides a policy on both published and unpublished quotes.

If nobody has any objections, I plan to do this rewrite sometime after 24 April. If there's a clamor (or a clamour) for it earlier, I can move it up. — Jeff Q (talk) 04:24, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * P.S. An additional point, addressing 212.142.33.101's question above:
 * For translations, the English version should follow the spellings provided by the cited translation of the quote.
 * There could be controversy over this. Wikipedia policy is "no original research", but many non-English quotes currently in Wikiquote have been provided by people who simply know each language and translate quotes themselves. (I know, because I've corrected the translations of some proverbs just to meet basic English grammar requirements.) In these cases, we might adopt the standard laissez-faire policy of keeping the spelling contributed by the author, as long as there is no cited translation. (The solution for those who believe there is a misspelling would be to find a printed translation and cite it when they change the spelling.) — Jeff Q (talk) 04:43, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * I've edited it to hopefully be clearer: giving clear guidelines (sans examples), and covering various places. ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 19:09, 10 November 2005 (UTC)

title: Wikiquote talk:Spellings