"Sometimes it's more important to be human, than to have good taste"
About this Quote
Aesthetic purity is a luxury Brecht doesn’t trust. “Sometimes it’s more important to be human, than to have good taste” lands like a small act of sabotage against the polite world where “taste” doubles as a moral alibi. Good taste claims neutrality, refinement, timeless standards; Brecht hears the click of class power behind it. What counts as tasteful is often what doesn’t disturb the dinner table: restraint over rage, elegance over need, ambiguity over accusation. The line punctures that bargain. It argues that decency isn’t an artistic category and that the real ethical failure is mistaking refinement for righteousness.
The key word is “sometimes,” a sly permission slip that keeps the quote from becoming anti-art populism. Brecht isn’t telling you to embrace sloppiness; he’s telling you to stop treating aesthetic standards as sacred when people are bleeding. In the 20th-century Europe that shaped him - war, fascism, exile, the machinery of propaganda - “good taste” can look like complicity: the cultivated ability to look away, to keep things “appropriate” while history turns obscene.
As a poet and dramatist, Brecht also aims the knife at art itself. His theater wanted to interrupt passive consumption, to make audiences think rather than swoon. “Human” here means porous, responsive, willing to risk sentiment, anger, or awkwardness in public. It’s a defense of art that chooses solidarity over polish, and of people who refuse to let manners outrank mercy.
The key word is “sometimes,” a sly permission slip that keeps the quote from becoming anti-art populism. Brecht isn’t telling you to embrace sloppiness; he’s telling you to stop treating aesthetic standards as sacred when people are bleeding. In the 20th-century Europe that shaped him - war, fascism, exile, the machinery of propaganda - “good taste” can look like complicity: the cultivated ability to look away, to keep things “appropriate” while history turns obscene.
As a poet and dramatist, Brecht also aims the knife at art itself. His theater wanted to interrupt passive consumption, to make audiences think rather than swoon. “Human” here means porous, responsive, willing to risk sentiment, anger, or awkwardness in public. It’s a defense of art that chooses solidarity over polish, and of people who refuse to let manners outrank mercy.
Quote Details
| Topic | Kindness |
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