Top 180 Bertolt Brecht Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “He who fights, can lose. He who doesn’t fight, has already lost.”

— Bertolt Brecht

Featured in: Resistance Quotes, Fighting Quotes

2. “Art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it.”

— Bertolt Brecht

Featured in: Culture Quotes

3. “In the dark times Will there also be singing? Yes, there will also be singing. About the dark times.”

— Bertolt Brecht

Featured in: Depressing Quotes, Suffering Quotes, Darkness Quotes

4. “Bank robbery is an initiative of amateurs. True professionals establish a bank.”

— Bertolt Brecht

5. “Don’t expect the theatre to satisfy the habits of its audience, but to change them.”

— Bertolt Brecht

6. “Erst kommt das Fressen, dann kommt die Moral.”

— Bertolt Brecht

Featured in: Anger Quotes

7. “Hungry man, reach for the book: it is a weapon.”

— Bertolt Brecht

8. “The aim of science is not to open the door to infinite wisdom, but to set a limit to infinite error.”

— Bertolt Brecht

9. “Don’t accept the habitual as a natural thing. In times of disorder, of organized confusion, of de-humanized humanity, nothing should seem natural. Nothing should seem impossible to change.”

— Bertolt Brecht

Featured in: Quotes About Humanity

10. “You can’t write poems about trees when the woods are full of policemen.”

— Bertolt Brecht

11. “Love is the wish to give, not to receive.”

— Bertolt Brecht

12. “When the leaders speak of peace, the common folk know war is coming.”

— Bertolt Brecht

13. “Everyone needs help from everyone.”

— Bertolt Brecht

14. “None will improve your lot If you yourself do not.”

— Bertolt Brecht

15. “Unhappy the land that is in need of heroes.”

— Bertolt Brecht

16. “In the contradiction lies the hope.”

— Bertolt Brecht

17. “You can make a fresh start with your final breath.”

— Bertolt Brecht

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

— Bertolt Brecht

Featured in: Crazy Quotes

19. “Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are.”

— Bertolt Brecht

20. “Love is the desire to give, not to receive, something. Love is the art of producing something with the other’s talents.”

— Bertolt Brecht

21. “To those who does not know the world is on fire, I have nothing to say.”

— Bertolt Brecht

22. “A man who doesn’t know the truth is just an idiot, but a man who knows the truth and calls it a lie is a crook.”

— Bertolt Brecht

23. “Intelligence is not to make no mistakes, but quickly to see how to make them good.”

— Bertolt Brecht

24. “If you wan to steal money, don’t rob a bank – open one.”

— Bertolt Brecht

25. “Suppose they gave a war, and nobody came? Why then, the war would come to you!”

— Bertolt Brecht

26. “If you don’t have fun, you don’t have a show.”

— Bertolt Brecht

Featured in: Fun Quotes

27. “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.”

— Bertolt Brecht

28. “A person is really dead only when nobody thinks of him anymore.”

— Bertolt Brecht

29. “All artforms are in the service of the greatest of all arts: the art of living.”

— Bertolt Brecht

30. “Art is not a mirror. Art is a hammer.”

— Bertolt Brecht

31. “The headlong stream is termed violent But the river bed hemming it in is Termed violent by no one.”

— Bertolt Brecht

32. “Those against politics are in favor of the politics inflicted upon them.”

— Bertolt Brecht

33. “Fearful is the seductive power of goodness.”

— Bertolt Brecht

34. “If art reflects life, it does so with special mirrors.”

— Bertolt Brecht

35. “Their peace and their war Are like wind and storm. War grows from their peace.”

— Bertolt Brecht

36. “Science knows only one commandment – contribute to science.”

— Bertolt Brecht

37. “Everyone chases after happiness, not noticing that happiness is right at their heels.”

— Bertolt Brecht

38. “The river that everything drags is known as violent, but nobody calls violent the margins that arrest him.”

— Bertolt Brecht

39. “No one can be good for long if goodness is not in demand.”

— Bertolt Brecht

40. “A theater without beer is just a museum.”

— Bertolt Brecht

41. “Go make yourself a plan And be a shining light. Then make yourself a second plan, For neither will come right.”

— Bertolt Brecht

42. “He who is still laughing is he who hasn’t heard the terrible news.”

— Bertolt Brecht

43. “The rain Never falls upwards. When the wound Stops hurting What hurts is The scar.”

— Bertolt Brecht

44. “Righteous people have no sense of humor.”

— Bertolt Brecht

45. “For art to be ‘unpolitical’ means only to ally itself with the ‘ruling’ group.”

— Bertolt Brecht

46. “Why be a man when you can be a success?”

— Bertolt Brecht

47. “You have to attack once the truth is too weak to defend itself.”

— Bertolt Brecht

48. “I can’t abide injustice.”

— Bertolt Brecht

49. “When something seems ‘the most obvious thing in the world’ it means that any attempt to understand the world has been given up.”

— Bertolt Brecht

50. “Great sport begins at a point where it has ceased to be healthy.”

— Bertolt Brecht