As an atheist, you cannot fully make sense of the music, you have no explanation for the perennial motion and rhythm. Martin Walser More Quotes by Martin Walser More Quotes From 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. Martin Walser worldly-life atheist missing I believe that the most important condition for faith is sensitivity to beauty. Martin Walser sensitivity important believe 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. Martin Walser disease choices love-is 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. Martin Walser not-interested trying years Those who use language and have nothing but language to express themselves live in a cage that cannot feel comfortable. Martin Walser cages language use Everything direct is positive, everything indirect is negative. Martin Walser indirect direct negative 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. Martin Walser atheism everyday atheist 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. Martin Walser struggle character people 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. Martin Walser study suffering philosophy If you cannot live without justification, you cannot live; period. And the path towards it is the path of language. Martin Walser language periods path You cannot simply discard God like a box that has been emptied. Martin Walser boxes has-beens