Quotes by Martin Walser

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 elses experience unless we dont assume this experience as our owns, which we can achieve only by living it anew and from scratch. We can not live our lives at someone elses expense. Only life fraught with dangers and risks and lived as your owns 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.