Quotes by Ludwig Wittgenstein

About Ludwig Wittgenstein:

Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. From 1929 to 1947, Wittgenstein taught at the University of Cambridge. During his lifetime he published just one slim book, the 75-page Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921), one article, one book review and a children's dictionary. His voluminous manuscripts were edited and published posthumously. Philosophical Investigations appeared as a book in 1953, and by the end of the century it was considered an important modern classic. His teacher Bertrand Russell described Wittgenstein as "the most perfect example I have ever known of genius as traditionally conceived; passionate, profound, intense, and dominating".
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

At the core of all well-founded belief lies belief that is unfounded.

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

476. Children do not learn that books exist, that armchairs exist, etc.,etc. - they learn to fetch books, sit in armchairs, etc.,etc. Later, questions about the existence of things do of course arise, "Is there such a thing as a unicorn?" and so on. ...

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Where two principles really do meet which cannot be reconciled with one another, then each man declares the other a fool and a heretic

Ludwig Wittgenstein

I act with complete certainty. But this certainty is my own.

Ludwig Wittgenstein

I am sitting with a philosopher in the garden; he says again and again 'I know that that’s a tree', pointing to a tree that is near us. Someone else arrives and hears this, and I tell him: 'This fellow isn’t insane. We are only doing philosophy.

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Resting on your laurels is as dangerous as resting when you are walking in the snow. You doze off and die in your sleep.

Ludwig Wittgenstein

One age misunderstands another; and a petty age misunderstands all the others in its own nasty way.

Ludwig Wittgenstein

The truly apocalyptic view of the world is that things do not repeat themselves. It isn’t absurd, e.g., to believe that the age of science and technology is the beginning of the end for humanity; that the idea of great progress is delusion, along w...

Ludwig Wittgenstein

If you already have a person's love no sacrifice can be too much to give for it; but any sacrifice is too great to buy it for you.

Ludwig Wittgenstein

People nowadays think that scientists exist to instruct them, poets, musicians, etc. to give them pleasure. The idea that these have something to teach them - that does not occur to them.

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Ideas too sometimes fall from the tree before they are ripe.

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 wa...

Ludwig Wittgenstein

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

Ludwig Wittgenstein

If you have a room which you do not want certain people to get into, put a lock on it for which they do not have the key. But there is no point in talking to them about it, unless of course you want them to admire the room from outside! The honorable...

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Put a man in the wrong atmosphere and nothing will function as it should. He will seem unhealthy in every part. Put him back into his proper element and everything will blossom and look healthy. But if he is not in his right element, what then? Well,...

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Religion is, as it were, the calm bottom of the sea at its deepest point, which remains calm however high the waves on the surface may be.

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Talent is a spring from which fresh water is constantly flowing. But this spring loses its value if it is not used in the right way.

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Christianity is not a doctrine, not, I mean, a theory about what has happened & will happen to the human soul, but a description of something that actually takes place in human life.

Ludwig Wittgenstein

I really do think with my pen, because my head often knows nothing about what my hand is writing.

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Everything ritualistic must be strictly avoided, because it immediately turns rotten. Of course a kiss is a ritual too and it isn't rotten, but ritual is permissible only to the extent that it is as genuine as a kiss.

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Author Bio

  • NameLudwig Wittgenstein
  • DescriptionAustrian-British philosopher
  • AliasesLudwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein
  • BornApril 26, 1889
  • DiedApril 29, 1951
  • CountryUnited Kingdom; Austria
  • ProfessionLogician; Mathematician; Aphorist; Epistemologist; Philosopher Of Language; Analytic Philosopher; Architectural Theoretician