How we cite our quotes: (Scene, Line numbers)
Quote #1
RECRUITER: How can you muster a unit in a place like this? I've been thinking about suicide, sergeant. Here am I, got to find our commander four companies before the twelfth of the month, and people round here are so nasty I can't sleep nights. […] 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 takes us right into the world of Mother Courage, at the meeting point of war and the "little folk" who get involved with it. Our first look is through the eyes of a military man. Here, the recruiter complains about the low caliber of the lower class, Swedish locals and man, does he have some nasty things to say. His negative appraisal of the lower classes—"no notion of word of honour, loyalty, faith, sense of duty"—already names the virtues Mother Courage actively rejects.
Quote #2
YVETTE: […] No good our sort being proud. Eat s***, that's what you got to do, or down you go. (III, 68-69)
Alright, that's pretty blunt. When it comes to her options in life, Yvette doesn't exactly wax poetic. But some version of this attitude is shared by most of the characters in Mother Courage. When you're near the bottom of the ladder like Yvette, refusing to work out of pride might mean you'll never see the end of the war—if it ever ends, that is.
Quote #3
THE COOK: […] it cost the king dear trying to give freedom to Germany, what with giving Sweden the salt tax, what cost the poor folk a bit, so I've heard, on top of which he had to have the Germans locked up and drawn and quartered 'cause they wanted to carry on slaving for the emperor. Course the king took a serious view when anybody didn't want to be free. He set out by just trying to project Poland against the bad people, particularly the emperor, then it started to become a habit till he ended up protecting the whole of Germany. They didn't half kick. So the poor old king's had nowt but trouble for all his kindness and expenses, and that's something he had to make up for by taxes of course, which caused bad blood, not that he's let a little matter like that depress him. One thing he had on his side, God's word, that was a help. Because otherwise folk would of been saying he done it all for himself and to make a bit on the side. So he's always had a good conscience, which was the main point. (III, 189-207)
The cook is trying to be ironic. The Swedish king is financing the war by taxing the "poor folk," the lower classes. So, it's a good thing people are convinced this is God's war, because he's probably pocketing a lot of that tax money himself. Right? No. The cook doesn't think it's a good thing at all. In the context of Mother Courage, the cook's irony reminds us that this is an observation from below, a position where earnest resistance is neither an option nor a good idea.