Bertolt Brecht Quotes about War

Writers can't write as fast as governments make wars; because to write demands thinking.

When the leaders speak of peace, the common folk know war is coming.

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.

We attacked a foreign people and treated them like rebels. As you know, it's all right to treat barbarians barbarically. It's the desire to be barbaric that makes governments call their enemies barbarians.

　When the leaders speak of peace 　The common folk know 　That war is coming 　When the leaders curse war 　The mobilization order is already written out. Every day, to earn my daily bread 　I go to the market where lies are bought 　Hopefully 　I take up my place among the sellers. 　

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

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.

Young Alexander conquered India. He alone? Caesar beat the Gauls. Was there not even a cook in his army? Philip of Spain wept as his fleet was sunk and destroyed. Were there no other tears? Frederick the Great triumphed in the Seven Years War. Who Triumphed with him?

I was called up in the war and sent to a hospital. I dressed wounds, applied iodine, gave enemas, did blood transfusions. If the doctor ordered: "Brecht, amputate a leg!", I would reply, "Certainly, Your Excellency!", and cut off the leg. If I was told, "Perform a trepanning!" I opened the man's skull and messed about with his brains. I saw how they patched fellows up, so as to cart them back to the Front as quickly as they could.

One cannot be arraigned for declaring a war, which every ruler has to do once in a while, but only for running a war badly.

Suppose they gave a war, and nobody came? Why then, the war would come to you!

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.

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