Ludwig Wittgenstein Quotes

Telling someone something he does not understand is pointless, even if you add that he will not be able to understand it. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

Nothing is more important than the formation of fictional concepts, which teach us at last to understand our own. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

An image is not a picture, but a picture can correspond to it. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

If a lion could speak, we could not understand him. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

The man who said that one cannot step into the same river twice said something wrong; one can step into the same river twice. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

To think that you are not following a rule is to follow a rule. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

The real discovery is the one which enables me to stop doing philosophy when I want to. The one that gives philosophy peace, so that it is no longer tormented by questions which bring itself into question. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

The difference between a good and a poor architect is that the poor architect succumbs to every temptation and the good one resists it. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

Just be indipendent of the external world, so you don't have to fear for what's in it. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

Every explanation is after all an hypothesis. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

Don't ask what it means, but rather how it is used. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

Frazer is much more savage than most of his savages, for they are not as far removed from the understanding of spiritual matter as a twentieth-century Englishman. His explanations of primitive practices are much cruder than the meaning of these practices themselves. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

It is love that believes the resurrection. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

All philosophy is a 'critique of language' (though not in Mauthner's sense). It was Russell who performed the service of showing that the apparent logical form of a proposition need not be its real one. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

Aim at being loved without being admired. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

What do I know about God and the purpose of life?
I know that this world exists.
That I am placed in it like my eye in its visual field.
That something about it is problematic, which we call its meaning.
This meaning does not lie in it but outside of it.
That life is the world.
That my will penetrates the world.
That my will is good or evil.
Therefore that good and evil are somehow connected with the meaning of the world.The meaning of life, i.e. the meaning of the world, we can call God.
And connect with this the comparison of God to a father. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

To believe in God is to see that life has meaning ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

This procedure [selecting the simplest law], however, has no logical justification but only a psychological one. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

What I called jottings would not be a rendering of the text, not so to speak a translation with another symbolism. The text would not be stored up in the jottings. And why should it be stored up in our nervous system? ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

Getting hold of the difficulty deep down is what is hard. Because if it is grasped near the surface it simply remains the difficulty it was. It has to be pulled out by the roots; and that involves our beginning to think about these things in a new way. The change is as decisive as, for example, that from the alchemical to the chemical way of thinking. The new way of thinking is what is so hard to establish. Once the new way of thinking has been established, the old problems vanish; indeed they become hard to recapture. For they go with our way of expressing ourselves and, if we clothe ourselves in a new form of expression, the old problems are discarded along with the old garment. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

I might say: if the place I want to get to could only be reached by way of a ladder, I would give up trying to get there. For the place I really have to get to is a place I must already be at now. Anything that I might reach by climbing a ladder does not interest me. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

You can't think decently if you're not willing to hurt yourself ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

An even more important philosophical contact was with the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, who began as my pupil and ended as my supplanter at both Oxford and Cambridge. He had intended to become an engineer and had gone to Manchester for that purpose. The training for an engineer required mathematics, and he was thus led to interest in the foundations of mathematics. He inquired at Manchester whether there was such a subject and whether anybody worked at it. They told him about me, and so he came to Cambridge. He was queer, and his notions seemed to me odd, so that for a whole term I could not make up my mind whether he was a man of genius or merely an eccentric. At the end of his first term at Cambridge he came to me and said: "Will you please tell me whether I am a complete idiot or not?" I replied, "My dear fellow, I don't know. Why are you asking me?" He said, "Because, if I am a complete idiot, I shall become an aeronaut; but, if not, I shall become a philosopher." I told him to write me something during the vacation on some philosophical subject and I would then tell him whether he was complete idiot or not. At the beginning of the following term he brought me the fulfillment of this suggestion. After reading only one sentence, I said to him: "No, you must not become an aeronaut." And he didn't.
The collected papers of Bertrand Russell: Last Philosophical Testament ~ Bertrand Russell

Tell me," Wittgenstein's asked a friend, "why do people always say, it was natural for man to assume that the sun went round the earth rather than that the earth was rotating?" His friend replied, "Well, obviously because it just looks as though the Sun is going round the Earth." Wittgenstein replied, "Well, what would it have looked like if it had looked as though the Earth was rotating? ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

The sense of a truth-function of p is a function of the sense of p. Denial, logical addition, logical multiplication, etc. etc., are operations. (Denial reverses the sense of a proposition.) ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

The only life that is happy is the life that can renounce the amenities of the world. To it the amenities of the world are so many graces of fate. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

Man is the microcosm: I am my world. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

My attitude towards him is an attitude towards a soul. I am not of the opinion that he has a soul ... ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

To understand a sentence means to understand a language. To understand a language means to be master of a technique. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

We have got onto slippery ice where there is no friction and so in a certain sense the conditions are ideal, but also, just because of that, we are unable to walk. We want to walk so we need friction. Back to the rough ground! ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

The agreement or disagreement or its sense with reality constitutes its truth or falsity. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

For the essence of the symbol cannot be altered without altering its sense. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

The sole remaining task for philosophy is the analysis of language. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

Philosophy is that activity by which the meaning of propositions is established or discovered; it is a question of what the propositions actually mean. The content, soul, and spirit of science naturally consist in what is ultimately meant by its sentences; the philosophical activity of rendering significant is thus the alpha and omega of all scientific knowledge.
[Moritz Schlick interpreting Ludwig Wittgenstein's position] ~ Moritz Schlick

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1953), went so far as to say that the limits of our language were, indeed, the limits of our world. ~ Anonymous

A teacher who can show good, or indeed astounding results while he is teaching, is still not on that account a good teacher, for it may be that, while his pupils are under his immediate influence, he raises them to a level which is not natural to them, without developing their own capacities for work at this level, so that they immediately decline again once the teacher leaves the schoolroom. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

What is good is also divine. Queer as it sounds, that sums up my ethics. Only something supernatural can express the Supernatural. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

Waltzing is not the same thing as dancing, since the rhumba is also a dance but it is not a waltz. It therefore follows that one can waltz without dancing the waltz. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

Only when one thinks even much more madly than the philosophers can one solve their problems. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

If you tried to doubt everything you would not get as far as doubting anything. The game of doubting itself presupposes certainty. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

When we think about the future of the world, we always have in mind its being where it would be if it continued to move as we see it moving now. We do not realize that it moves not in a straight line and that its direction changes constantly. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

The limits of your language are the limits of your world. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

The truth of the thoughts that are here set forth seems to me unassailable and definitive. I therefore believe myself to have found, on all essential points, the final solution of the problems. And if I am not mistaken in this belief, then the second thing in which the value of this work consists is that it shows how little is achieved when these problems are solved. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

One must always be prepared to learn something totally new. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

So we do sometimes think because it has been found to pay. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

A mathematical proof must be perspicuous. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

Logic is not a theory but a reflexion of the world. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

Since social relationships are always ambiguous, since my thought is only a unit, since my thoughts create rifts as much as they unite, since my words establish contacts by being spoken and create isolation by remaining unspoken, since an immense moat separates the subjective certitude that I have for myself from the objective reality that I represent to others, since I never stop finding myself guilty even though I feel I am innocent ... ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

Architecture immortalizes and glorifies something. Hence there can be no architecture where there is nothing to glorify. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

Golden is a surface colour. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

It is truly strange how long it takes to get to know oneself. I am now sixty two years old, yet just one moment ago I realised that I absolutely love lightly toasted bread. Simultaneously, I also realised that I loathe bread when it is heavily toasted. For almost sixty years, and quite unconsciously, I have been experiencing inner joy or total despair at my relationship with grilled bread. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

White must be the lightest color in a picture. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

Philosophy is like trying to open a safe with a combination lock: each little adjustment of the dials seems to achieve nothing, only when everything is in place does the door open. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

When you are philosophizing you have to descend into primeval chaos and feel at home there. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

So in the end, when one is doing philosophy, one gets to the point where one would like just to emit an inarticulate sound. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

Perhaps you regard this thinking about myself as a waste of time - but how can I be a logician before I'm a human being! Far the most important thing is to settle accounts with myself! ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

The wish precedes the event, the will accompanies it. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

In the world everything is as it is and happens as it does happen. In it, there is no value, - and if there were, it would be of no value. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

If there were a verb meaning "to believe falsely," it would not have any significant first person, present indicative. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

If life becomes hard to bear we think of a change in our circumstances. But the most important and effective change, a change in our own attitude, hardly even occurs to us, and the resolution to take such a step is very difficult for us. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

Is it even always an advantage to replace an indistinct picture by a sharp one? Isn't the indistinct one often what we need? ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

This is how philosophers should salute each other: 'Take your time. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

You learned the concept 'pain' when you learned language. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

[M]an is fulfilling the purpose of existence who no longer needs to have any purpose except to live. That is to say, who is content. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

A new word is like a fresh seed sown on the ground of the discussion. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

It is clear that ethics cannot be expressed. Ethics are transcendental. (Ethics and aesthetics are one.) ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

Reading the Socratic dialogues one has the feeling: what a frightful waste of time! What's the point of these arguments that prove nothing and clarify nothing? ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

Russell's books should be bound in two colours, those dealing with mathematical logic in red - and all students of philosophy should read them; those dealing with ethics and politics in blue - and no one should be allowed to read them. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

Don't look for the meanings; look for the use. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

The essential business of language is to assert or deny facts. Given ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

The real question of life after death isn't whether or not it exists, but even if it does what problem this really solves. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

Humor is not a mood but a way of looking at the world. So if it is correct to say that humor was stamped out in Nazi Germany, that does not mean that people were not in good spirits, or anything of that sort, but something much deeper and more important. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

If people never did silly things nothing intelligent would ever get done. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

Said in reference to Ludwig Wittgenstein: Talent is like the marksman who hits a target which others cannot reach; genius is like the marksman who hits a target others cannot even see. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer

There is no more light in a genius than in any other honest man
but he has a particular kind of lens to concentrate this light into a burning point. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

The logic of the world is prior to all truth and falsehood. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

Roughly speaking: objects are colourless ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

Burning in effigy. Kissing the picture of one's beloved ... it aims at nothing at all; we just behave this way and then we feel satisfied. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

Philosophical problems arise when language goes on holiday ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

It is clear that the causal nexus is not a nexus at all. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

The world of those who are happy is different from the world of those who are not. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

This book will perhaps only be understood by those who have themselves already thought the thoughts which are expressed in it-or similar thoughts. It is therefore not a text-book. Its object would be attained if it afforded pleasure to one who read it with understanding. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

A nothing will serve just as well as a something about which nothing could be said. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

That the world is, is the mystical. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

If God had looked into our minds he would not have been able to see there whom we were speaking of. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

It would strike me as ridiculous to want to doubt the existence of Napoleon; but if someone doubted the existence of the earth 150years ago, perhaps I should be more willing to listen, for now he is doubting our whole system of evidence. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

What cannot be imagined cannot even be talked about. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

How small a thought it takes to fill a life. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

When I am furious about something, I sometimes beat the ground or a tree with my walking stick. But I certainly do not believe that the ground is to blame or that my beating can help anything ... And all rites are of this kind. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

Freud 's fanciful pseudo-explanations (precisely because they are brilliant) perform a disservice. (Now any ass has these pictures available to use in "explaining" symptoms of an illness. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

Suppose we think while we talk or write
I mean, as we normally do
we shall not in general say that we think quicker than we talk, but the thought seems not to be separate from the expression. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

At the basis of the whole modern view of the world lies the illusion that the so-called laws of nature are the explanations of natural phenomena. So people stop short at natural laws as at something unassailable, as did the ancients at God and Fate.
And they both are right and wrong. But the ancients were clearer, in so far as they recognized one clear conclusion, whereas in the modern system it should appear as though everything were explained. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

Philosophy can be said to consist of three activities: to see the commonsense answer, to get yourself so deeply into the problem that the common sense answer is unbearable, and to get from that situation back to the commonsense answer. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

If you use a trick in logic, whom can you be tricking other than yourself? ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

Only let's cut out the transcendental twaddle when the whole thing is as plain as a sock on the jaw. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

Hell isn't other people. Hell is yourself. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

A picture of a complete apple tree, however accurate, is in a certain sense much less like the tree itself than is a little daisy. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

Deep inside me there's a perpetual seething, like the bottom of a geyser, and I keep hoping that things will come to an eruption once and for all, so that I can turn into a different person. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

What is thinkable is also possible. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

Schiller writes in a letter [to Goethe, 17 December 1795] of a 'poetic mood'. I think I know what he means, I think I am familiar with it myself. It is the mood of receptivity to nature and one in which one's thoughts seem as vivid as nature itself. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein