How we cite our quotes: (Scene, Line numbers)
Quote #1
RECRUITER: How can you muster a unit in a place like this? […] No notion of word of honour, loyalty, faith, sense of duty. This place has shattered my confidence in the human race, sergeant. (I, 3-13)
The first line of the play sounds like something someone might think about the main characters of Mother Courage. Namely, that they don't care much about principles. Who knows? Maybe their actions "shatter" our own confidence in the human race.
Quote #2
MOTHER COURAGE: Courage is the name they gave me because I was scared of going broke, sergeant, so I drove me cart right through the bombardment of Riga with fifty loaves of bread aboard. They were going mouldy, it was high time, hadn't any choice really. (I, 75-79)
If you think Mother Courage is out to impress you with a story about her valiant conduct, well, forget about it. She makes it clear that, even when she seems to be acting "courageously," she doesn't think much about the virtues of her actions. What's more important is that she needs money to survive.
Quote #3
THE GENERAL slapping Eilif on the shoulder: Now then, Eilif my son, into your general's tent with you and sit thou at my right hand. For you accomplished a deed of heroism, like a pious cavalier, and doing what you did for God, and in a war of religion at that, is something I commend in you most highly, you shall have a gold bracelet as soon as we've taken this town. Here we are, come to save their souls for them, and what do those insolent dung-encrusted yokels go and do? Drive their beef away from us. They stuff it into those priests of theirs all right, back and front, but you taught 'em manners, ha! So here's a pot or red wine for you, the two of us'll knock it back at one gulp. (II, 45-56)
"For God"? For hamburgers is more like it. When we read this line, it's hard not to notice the way the general extols Eilif's virtues, claiming he acted "for God," only to emphasize a seemingly more important point: Eilif has found a way to feed the army. Eilif didn't steal cattle to please the Lord; he stole cattle to get something to eat.