Ludwig Wittgenstein Quotes

1889-1951, Austrian Philosopher
quotes
45
topics
12
Origin
What do these mean?
Topic
“Our greatest stupidities may be very wise.”
VerifiedCulture and Value (1980) · evidenceStupidity
“For a truly religious man nothing is tragic.”
VerifiedPersonal Recollections (1981), Conversation of 1930 · evidenceReligion
“A confession has to be part of your new life.”
VerifiedCulture and Value (1980) · evidenceConfession
“Knowledge is in the end based on acknowledgement.”
VerifiedOn Certainty (1969) · evidenceKnowledge
“There are remarks that sow and remarks that reap.”
Speech
“The human body is the best picture of the human soul.”
VerifiedPhilosophical Investigations (1953) · evidenceHealth
“Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.”
Silence
“The logic of the world is prior to all truth and falsehood.”
Logic
“You get tragedy where the tree, instead of bending, breaks.”
VerifiedCulture and Value (1980), 1929, p. 1 · evidenceTragedies
“One often makes a remark and only later sees how true it is.”
VerifiedJournal entry (11 October 1914), p. 10e · evidenceTruth
“If you do know that here is one hand, we'll grant you all the rest.”
VerifiedOn Certainty (1969) · evidenceCertainty
“Language is a part of our organism and no less complicated than it.”
VerifiedJournal entry (14 May 1915), p. 48 · evidenceLanguage
“A new word is like a fresh seed sewn on the ground of the discussion.”
VerifiedCulture and Value (1980) · evidenceWords
“Uttering a word is like striking a note on the keyboard of the imagination.”
VerifiedPhilosophical Investigations (1953) · evidenceWords
“If we spoke a different language, we would perceive a somewhat different world.”
MisattributedListed as misattributed to Ludwig Wittgenstein; no source in their known works. · evidenceLanguage
“Logic takes care of itself; all we have to do is to look and see how it does it.”
VerifiedJournal entry (13 October 1914), also in Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (§ 5.47) · evidenceLogic
“A serious and good philosophical work could be written consisting entirely of jokes.”
Philosophers and Philosophy
“The limits of my language are the limits of my mind. All I know is what I have words for.”
Vocabulary
“A philosopher who is not taking part in discussions is like a boxer who never goes into the ring.”
VerifiedPersonal Recollections (1981), Conversation of 1930 · evidenceDebate
“Man has to awaken to wonder -- and so perhaps do peoples. Science is a way of sending him to sleep again.”
VerifiedCulture and Value (1980) · evidenceScience and Scientists
“It is one of the chief skills of the philosopher not to occupy himself with questions which do not concern him.”
VerifiedJournal entry (1 May 1915) · evidencePhilosophers and Philosophy
“Like everything metaphysical the harmony between thought and reality is to be found in the grammar of the language.”
VerifiedPhilosophical Investigations (1953) · evidenceGrammar
“Resting on your laurels is as dangerous as resting when you are walking in the snow. You doze off and die in your sleep.”
VerifiedCulture and Value (1980) · evidenceWinners and Winning
“I sit astride life like a bad rider on a horse. I only owe it to the horse's good nature that I am not thrown off at this very moment.”
VerifiedCulture and Value (1980) · evidenceLife and Living
“A man will be imprisoned in a room with a door that's unlocked and opens inwards; as long as it does not occur to him to pull rather than push.”
VerifiedCulture and Value (1980) · evidencePrison
“A man's thinking goes on within his consciousness in a seclusion in comparison with which any physical seclusion is an exhibition to public view.”
VerifiedPhilosophical Investigations (1953) · evidenceThoughts and Thinking
“For a large class of cases — though not for all — in which we employ the word meaning it can be explained thus: the meaning of a word is its use in the language.”
VerifiedPhilosophical Investigations (1953) · evidenceMeaning