German playwright & poet (1898-1956)
There are some with brains and some without. It makes for a better division of labour.
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Baal
Unhappy the land that needs heroes.
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Life of Galileo
What is robbing a bank compared with founding a bank?
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The Threepenny Opera
The law was made for one thing alone, for the exploitation of those who don't understand it.
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The Threepenny Opera
Grub first, then ethics.
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The Threepenny Opera
War is like love, it always finds a way.
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Mother Courage and Her Children
Though the rich of this earth find no difficulty in creating misery, they can't bear to see it.
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The Threepenny Opera
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.
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"When Evil-Doing Comes Like Falling Rain"
Let nothing be called natural
In an age of bloody confusion,
Ordered disorder, planned caprice,
And dehumanized humanity, lest all things
Be held unalterable!
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The Exception and the Rule
From the start it has been the theatre's business to entertain people ... it needs no other passport than fun.
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A Short Organum for the Theatre
Do not fear death so much, but rather the inadequate life.
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The Mother
The man who laughs has simply not yet had the terrible news.
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"To Those Born Later"
The storm that bends the birch trees
Is held to be violent
But how about the storm
That bends the backs of the roadworkers?
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"On Violence"
Mixing one's wines may be a mistake, but old and new wisdom mix admirably.
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The Caucasian Chalk Circle
People remain what they are even if their faces fall apart.
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In the Jungle of Cities
If art reflects life, it does so with special mirrors.
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A Short Organum for the Theatre
You may proclaim, good sirs, your fine philosophy
But till you feed us, right and wrong can wait!
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The Threepenny Opera
To live means to finesse the processes to which one is subjugated.
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On Politics and Society
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.
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On Theatre
Love is the desire to give, not to receive, something. Love is the art of producing something with the other's talents.
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"Love of Whom?"