Bertolt Brecht: Quotes about war

Bertolt Brecht was German poet, playwright, theatre director. Explore interesting quotes on war.

Bertolt Brecht: 204 quotes16 likes

“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.”

Bertolt Brecht

"Freedom for Whom", as translated in Brecht on Brecht : An Improvisation (1967) by George Tabori, p. 18
Context: 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.

“The war which is coming
Is not the first one. There were
Other wars before it.
When the last one came to an end
There were conquerors and conquered.
Among the conquered the common people
Starved. Among the conquerors
The common people starved too.”

Bertolt Brecht

Source: Poems 1913-1956

“What if they gave a war and no one came? Then the war will come to you.”

Bertolt Brecht

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 http://www.cyberussr.com/hcunn/q-war-nobody-came.html <br class="br">Misattributed

“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.”

Bertolt Brecht

"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
Poems, 1913-1956 (1976)

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

Bertolt Brecht A Short Organum for the Theatre

¶ 55
A Short Organum for the Theatre (1949)

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

Bertolt Brecht

"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
Poems, 1913-1956 (1976)

“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?”

Bertolt Brecht

"Alphabet" [Alfabet] from "Five Children's Songs" (1934), trans. John Willett in Poems, 1913-1956, p. 239
Poems, 1913-1956 (1976)

“War is like love, it always finds a way.”

Bertolt Brecht

The Chaplain, in Scene 6, p. 76
Mother Courage and Her Children (1939)

“There are many ways to kill. One can stick a knife in one's stomach, deprive one of bread, fail to cure one of a disease, put one in a bad apartment, work one to death, drive one to suicide, take one to war, etc. Only a few of these are forbidden in our state.”

Bertolt Brecht