“You always know more than you think you know without being aware of it. You always remember best what has hurt most. Memory is a reflex of the pain. Knowledge is the memory of the pain combined with the unconsciousness which we 'rationalize' via dreams or by means of reading literature. It is impossible to learn from someone else's experience unless we don't assume this experience as our own's, which we can achieve only by living it anew and from scratch. We can not live our lives at someone else's expense. Only life fraught with dangers and risks and lived as your own's deserves its name. Only selfish people do not live their lives as if they do not belong entirely to them. Cowardice equals a life that you refuse to live at its fullest and at its most dangerous.” PainMemory Author:Martin Walser
“Zwei Freunde, die einander nicht sagen können, dass sie keine mehr sind - das ist das elendste Verhältnis überhaupt” FreundschaftFreundeFreund Book:Die Inszenierung Source: Die Inszenierung
“Zwei Freunde, die einander nicht sagen können, dass sie keine mehr sind - das ist das elendeste Verhältnis überhaupt” FreundschaftFreundeFreund Book:Die Inszenierung Source: Die Inszenierung
“People who don't pay attention to the question of justification are often rather uninteresting, in my opinion. I am most fascinated by characters who struggle with the demands of justification.” PeopleCharacterPayAttentionOpinionStruggleDemandPay AttentionFascinatedJustification Author:Martin Walser
“Once you have awakened to the question of faith, you cannot simply return to your everyday agenda like a committed atheist could. You cannot retreat to the comforts of atheism.” AtheismReturnComfortEverydayAtheistCommittedAgendasRetreatAwakened Author:Martin Walser
“You cannot spend two thousand years trying to understand God and then simply abandon the question and declare that we’re not interested in it anymore.” TryingYearsAbandonNot Interested Author:Martin Walser
“I believe that the most important condition for faith is sensitivity to beauty.” BelieveImportantI BelieveConditionsSensitivity Author:Martin Walser
“As an atheist, you cannot fully make sense of the music, you have no explanation for the perennial motion and rhythm.” AtheistRhythmMake SenseExplanation Author:Martin Walser
“Take Bach or Schubert: Their music was dedicated to God but filled and shaped their worldly lives. If you are a committed atheist, you lean back and miss all the richness of that history.” IfsMissingFilledAtheistCommittedDedicatedWorldlyRichnessWorldly LifeSchubert Author:Martin Walser
“Those who use language and have nothing but language to express themselves live in a cage that cannot feel comfortable.” FeelsUseLanguageComfortableCages Author:Martin Walser
“Language corresponds only to itself. Intellectuals suffer from that. And once you begin to question language, you cannot stop at studying linguistics. Analytical philosophy becomes insufficient, artificial grammar becomes insufficient.” PhilosophySufferingLanguageStudyArtificialGrammarLinguisticsInsufficient Author:Martin Walser
“If you cannot live without justification, you cannot live; period. And the path towards it is the path of language.” IfsLanguagePathPeriodsJustification Author:Martin Walser
“Everything direct is positive, everything indirect is negative.” NegativeDirectIndirect Author:Martin Walser
“You cannot simply discard God like a box that has been emptied.” Has BeensBoxes Author:Martin Walser
“It is only true love when you have no choice. Love is the most highly valued disease that is identified by the symptom of You-can´t-help-it.” HelpingChoicesLove IsDiseaseSymptoms Author:Martin Walser
