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

(Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956), German dramatist, poet. First god, in The Good Woman of Setzuan, sc. 1a.)

Let nothing be called natural
In an age of bloody confusion,
Ordered disorder, planned caprice,
And dehumanized humanity, lest all things
Be held unalterable!

(Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956), German dramatist, poet. The Exception and the Rule, Prologue (1937).)

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

(Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956), German dramatist, poet. Pelagea Vlasova, in The Mother, sc. 10.)

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.

(Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956), German dramatist, poet. The sergeant, in Mother Courage and Her Children, sc. 1 (1939), trans. by Eric Bentley (1941).)

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

(Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956), German dramatist, poet. The Singer, in The Caucasian Chalk Circle, prologue (1944).)

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

(Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956), German dramatist, poet. "What Keeps Mankind Alive?" Act 2, sc. 6, The Threepenny Opera.)

Food first, then morality.

(Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956), German dramatist, poet. "What Keeps Mankind Alive?" Act 2, sc. 6, The Threepenny Opera.)

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.

(Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956), German dramatist, poet. repr. In Brecht on Theatre, ed. and trans. by John Willett (1964). "A Short Organum for the Theatre," para. 35 (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.

(Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956), German dramatist, poet. repr. in Brecht on Theatre, pt. 1, ed. and trans. by John Willett (1964). "Emphasis on Sport," Berliner B?rsen-Courier (February 6, 1926).)

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

(Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956), German dramatist, poet. repr. In Brecht on Theatre, ed. and trans. by John Willett (1964). "A Short Organum for the Theatre," par. 55 (1949).)