“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.”

In my view, the great and complicated things that go on in the world cannot be adequately recognized by people who do not use every possible aid to understanding.

Schoenberg is too melodious for me, too sweet.

A person is really dead only when nobody thinks of him anymore.

…it is simplicity that is difficult to make.

The headlong stream is termed violent But the river bed hemming it in is Termed violent by no one.

First the grub, then the morals.

People who understand everything get no stories.

First the pork chops, then morality

In the dark times Will there also be singing? Yes, there will also be singing. About the dark times.

The finest plans have always been spoiled by the littleness of them that should carry them out. Even emperors can’t do it all by themselves.

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

The fanatics for progress often have too little appreciation of the existing.

Unhappiness doesn’t grow on the chest like leprosy. Poverty won’t fall off the roof like a loose tile, no; poverty and unhappiness are man’s doing.

When something seems ‘the most obvious thing in the world’ it means that any attempt to understand the world has been given up.

It is not enough to demand insight and informative images of reality from the theater. Our theater must stimulate a desire for understanding, a delight in changing reality.

A theater without beer is just a museum