Bertolt Brecht citations
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Bertolt Brecht, né le 10 février 1898 à Augsbourg, en Bavière et mort le 14 août 1956 à Berlin-Est, est un dramaturge, metteur en scène, critique théâtral, écrivain auteur de romans et récits en prose et poète allemand du XXe siècle .

✵ 10. février 1898 – 14. août 1956   •   Autres noms Bertold Brecht, Бертольд Брехт
Bertolt Brecht photo
Bertolt Brecht: 115   citations 3   J'aime

Bertolt Brecht citations célèbres

“Il faut […] extirper la bêtise parce qu'elle rend bêtes ceux qui la rencontrent.”

Histoires de monsieur Keuner, 1956

“La science ne connaît qu'une loi: la contribution scientifique.”

La Vie de Galilée, 1938, Scène 14, Andrea

“Pour le pétrole il faut lutter
Contre la terre et contre le coolie
Et dans cette lutte, qu'on se le dise :
L'homme faible meurt, l'homme fort se bat.”

Livre Théâtre complet de Bertolt Brecht/L'Arche 3, L'Exception et la règle, Bernard Sobel, Jean Dufour, 1930, 14
L'Exception et la règle, 1930, Le Marchand.

Citations sur la patrie de Bertolt Brecht

“Malheureux le pays qui n'a pas de héros.”

La Vie de Galilée, 1938, Scène 13, Andrea

“Andrea: Malheureux le pays qui n'a pas de héros.
Galilée: Non. Malheureux le pays qui a besoin de héros.”

Livre La Vie de Galilée, Bertolt Brecht, L’Arche, 1990, 2-85181-248-3, 118-119, 13, Éloi Recoing
La Vie de Galilée, 1938, Scène 13

Bertolt Brecht Citations

Bertolt Brecht: Citations en anglais

“Unhappy is the land that needs a hero.”

Bertolt Brecht livre La Vie de Galilée

Scene 12, p. 115
Variant translations: Pity the country that needs heroes.
Unhappy the land that is in need of heroes
Source: Andrea: Unhappy is the land that breeds no hero.
Galileo: No, Andrea: Unhappy is the land that needs a hero. [Unglücklich das Land, das Helden nötig hat. ]

“To live means to finesse the processes to which one is subjugated.”

"Notes on Philosophy" in On Politics and Society (1941).

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

The Singer, in The Caucasian Chalk Circle (1944), Prologue

“Worship with fulness of heart the weak memory of heaven!
It cannot trace
Either your name or your face
Nobody knows you're still living.”

"Great hymn of thanksgiving" [Grosser Dankchoral] (1920) from The Devotions (1922-1927); trans. Karl Neumann in Poems, 1913-1956, p. 74
Poems, 1913-1956 (1976)

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

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
Misattributed

“But something's missing (Aber etwas fehlt).”

Jim[my] Mahoney, in Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (1930)

“The more innocent they are, the more they deserve to be shot.”

On defendants in the Moscow Trials and on innocents betrayed by Communist Party members, as recounted by philosopher Sidney Hook, as quoted in Intellectuals (1990) by Paul Johnson, p. 190; though this might easily be interpreted as implying that anyone who had failed to conspire against Stalin deserved to be shot, Hook implies that he meant that the betrayal of innocents was justified. Henry Pachter is also quoted in Intellectuals as saying that Brecht had made similar remarks in his presence, and had added "Fifty years hence the communists will have forgotten Stalin, but I want to be sure that they will still read Brecht. Therefore I cannot separate myself from the Party."

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

Bertolt Brecht The Threepenny Opera

"What Keeps Mankind Alive?" Act 2, sc. 6
The Threepenny Opera (1928)

“Come in, dear wind, and be our guest
You too have neither home nor rest.”

"Christmas legend" [Weinachtslegende] (1923) Berliner Börsen-Courier (25 December 1924); trans in Poems, 1913-1956, p. 100
Poems, 1913-1956 (1976)

“Come fishing with me, said the fisherman to the worm.”

Komm, geh mit angeln, sagte der Fischer zum Wurm.
Mutter Courage to the army recruiter when he tries to recruit her son in Scene 1
Mother Courage and Her Children (1939)

“On golden chairs
Sitting at ease, you paid for the songs which we chanted
To those less lucky. You paid us for drying their tears
And for comforting all those whom you had wounded.”

"Song of the cut-price poets" [Lied der preiswerten Lyriker] (1927/1933) from Songs Poems Choruses (1934); in Poems, 1913-1956, p. 161
Poems, 1913-1956 (1976)

“For the task assigned them
Men aren't smart enough or sly
Any rogue can blind them
With a clever lie.”

Bertolt Brecht The Threepenny Opera

Polly Peachum, in "The Song of the Futility of All Human Endeavor"; Act 3, scene 1, p. 75
The Threepenny Opera (1928)

“And I always thought: the very simplest words
Must be enough. When I say what things are like
Everyone's heart must be torn to shreds.
That you'll go down if you don't stand up for yourself
Surely you see that.”

"And I always thought" [Und ich dachte immer] (c. 1956), trans. Michael Hamburger in Poems, 1913-1956, p. 452
Poems, 1913-1956 (1976)

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