The most inspiring Bertolt Brecht quotes

Last Updated on 14/01/2024

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Check out the most inspiring Bertolt Brecht quotes not only on life, love, and art but also on how fragile is the interpretation of reality. Bertolt Brecht was born in 1898 in Augsburg, Bavaria. He studied Medicine at the University of Munich. In the First World War, he enlisted as a nurse and began to write his first poems and plays. After the rise of Nazism, he exiled himself from Germany until 1948. He lived in Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and the USA. He died in 1956 in East Berlin. His work, established worldwide, remains relevant to this day. Among his most important works are the plays The Chalk Circle, The Opera of Five, The Good Man of Szechuan, Mother Courage and Her Children, and many poetry collections.

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The most inspiring Bertolt Brecht quotes

Bertolt Brecht quotes on life

Bertolt Brecht wrote about intelligence that it is not to make no mistakes, but quickly to see how to make them good.

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

– Bertolt Brecht

Moreover, about fighting and losing he wrote that only those who fight can lose. On the other hand, if we don’t fight we have already lost.

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

– Bertolt Brecht

About happiness, he suggested that those who chase after happiness don’t notice that happiness is closer than they think.

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

– Bertolt Brecht

“One must live well to know what living is.”

– Bertolt Brecht

“Alas,we who wanted kindness, could not be kind ourselves.”

– Bertolt Brecht

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Brecht’s love quotes

“I want to go with the one I love.
I do not want to calculate the cost.
I do not want to think about whether it’s good.
I do not want to know whether he loves me.
I want to go with whom I love…”

– Bertolt Brecht

“Weaknesses

You had none
I had one:
I loved.”

– Bertolt Brecht

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Bertolt Brecht quotes on art

Moreover, Bertolt Brecht has some inspiring quotes on art that should interact and impact reality by serving life.

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

– Bertolt Brecht

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

– Bertolt Brecht

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“The beggar, or the dead dog”

The first time I came across a Bertolt Brecht small one-act play “The Beggar, or the Dead Dog”, I was astonished. Its nearly five-page text is about the dialogue between a king and a beggar. The king rushes to celebrate his victory and the beggar is very sad because his only companion, his dog, died the previous night. So, I was completely amazed by a part of the dialogue that shows how fragile the interpretation of reality is and the importance of mindset.

Negative interpretation

“You have a feeble voice,
therefore you are timid;
you ask too many questions,
therefore you’re a flunkey;
you try to set traps for me,
therefore you’re not sure of anything,
even the surest thing;
you don’t believe me
but listen to me all the same,
therefore you’re a weak man,
and finally, you believe that
the whole world revolves around you,
when there are people far more important, myself for instance.
Besides, you are blind, deaf, and ignorant.
As for you other vices,
I don’t know them yet”.

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Positive interpretation

Thus, we can easily give at least two interpretations of everything, a positive, a negative, and a million intermediate gradations. It reminded me of some events and words of the past, which made me feel sad or inadequate, but I could deal with them differently and give them a positive meaning.

“You speak softly,
therefore you are humble;
you ask many questions,
therefore you seek knowledge;
you weigh up everything,
therefore you are skeptical;
you listen to what you believe to be lies,
therefore you are tolerant;
you believe that everything revolves
around yourself,
therefore you are no worse than other men
and believe nothing more foolish than they do.
Besides, you are not confused
by too much seeing,
don’t bother with things
that don’t concern you,
are not made inactive by knowledge.
As for you other virtue,
you know them better than I do, or anyone else”.
For the times I’ve been trapped
in someone else’s words…

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