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Ludwig Wittgenstein

Ludwig Wittgenstein Quotes

Philosopher

Ludwig Wittgenstein was one of the most important philosophers of the 20th century, renowned for his profound contributions to language, logic, and philosophical methods. His ideas have had a significant impact on the development of analytic philosophy and philosophy of language.

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Famous Ludwig Wittgenstein Quotes

“Philosophy unravels the knots in our thinking; hence its results must be simple, but its activity is as complicated as the knots that it unravels.”

Thinking Philosophy Simple Results Activity Complicated Knots

Book:Philosophical Occasions, 1912-1951

Source: Philosophical Occasions, 1912-1951

“You could attach prices to thoughts. Some cost a lot, some a little. And how does one pay for thoughts? The answer, I think, is: with courage.”

Thinking Littles Doe Answers Pay Cost

Author:Ludwig Wittgenstein

“Your questions refer to words; so I have to talk about words. You say:;: The point isn't the word, but its meaning, and you think of the meaning as a thing of the same kind as the word, though also different from the word. Here the word, there the meaning.”

Thinking Kind Different Words You Say

Book:Philosophical Grammar: Part I, The Proposition, and Its Sense, Part II, On Logic and Mathematics

Source: Philosophical Grammar: Part I, The Proposition, and Its Sense, Part II, On Logic and Mathematics

“So we do sometimes think because it has been found to pay.”

Thinking Has Beens Sometimes Found Pay

Book:Philosophical Investigations

Source: Philosophical Investigations

“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.”

Thinking Knows Writing Mean Seems Letters Mood Familiar Poetic Vivid December Receptivity

Author:Ludwig Wittgenstein

“It's only by thinking even more crazily than philosophers do that you can solve their problems.”

Thinking Problem Philosopher Solve

Author:Ludwig Wittgenstein

“The aim of the book is to set a limit to thought, or rather - not to thought, but to the expression of thoughts: for in order to be able to set a limit to thought, we should have to find both sides of the limit thinkable (i.e. we should have to be able to think what cannot be thought). It will therefore only be in language that the limit can be set, and what lies on the other side of the limit will simply be nonsense.”

Thinking Should Book Able Lying Order Language Sides Expression Limits Should Have Aim Nonsense Both Sides Thinkable

Book:Wittgenstein's Tractatus

Source: Wittgenstein's Tractatus

“Human beings have a physical need to tell themselves when at work: "Let's have done with it now," and it's having constantly to go on thinking in the face of this need when philosophizing that makes this work so strenuous.”

Thinking Needs Humans Done Faces Human Beings Goes On

Author: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.”

Ifs Thinking World Mind Would Be Moving Realizing Lines Straight Lines

Author:Ludwig Wittgenstein

“No one can think a thought for me in the way that no one can don my hat for me.”

Thinking Way Hats

Author:Ludwig Wittgenstein

“Man feels the urge to run up against the limits of language. Think for example of the astonishment that anything at all exists. This astonishment cannot be expressed in the form of a question, and there is also no answer whatsoever. Anything we might say is a priori bound to be nonsense. Nevertheless we do run up against the limits of language. Kierkegaard too saw that there is this running up against something, and he referred to it in a fairly similar way (as running up against paradox). This running up against the limits of language is ethics.”

Thinking Men Way Feels Might Running Form Language Answers Saws Example Limits Ethics Bounds Nonsense Urges Paradox Nevertheless Astonishment

Author:Ludwig Wittgenstein

“A propositional sign, applied and thought out, is a thought. A thought is a proposition with a sense.”

Thinking Language Thoughtful Propositions

Book:Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

Source: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

“Think of the tools in a tool-box: there is a hammer, pliers, a saw, a screwdriver, a rule, a glue-pot, nails and screws.--The function of words are as diverse as the functions of these objects.”

Thinking Language Saws Objects Tools Function Boxes Pot Diverse Nails Screws Hammers Glue Screwdrivers Pliers Tool Boxes

Author: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.”

Thinking Writing Mean Seems Expression

Book:Philosophical Investigations

Source: Philosophical Investigations

“To think that you are not following a rule is to follow a rule.”

Thinking Following

Author:Ludwig Wittgenstein

“Think of words as instruments characterized by their use, and then think of the use of a hammer, the use of a chisel, the use of a square, of a glue pot, and of the glue.”

Thinking Use Instruments Pot Squares Hammers Glue Chisels

Author:Ludwig Wittgenstein

“If, for example, you were to think more deeply about death, then it would be truly strange if, in so doing, you did not encounter new images.”

Ifs Thinking Would Be Example Strange Encounters Doing You

Author:Ludwig Wittgenstein

“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.”

Thinking Men Views Consciousness Goes On Comparison Exhibitions Physical Attraction Seclusion

Book:Philosophical Investigations

Source: Philosophical Investigations

“Hegel seems to me to be always wanting to say that things which look different are really the same. Whereas my interest is in showing that things which look the same are really different. I was thinking of using as a motto for my book a quotation from King Lear: 'I’ll teach you differences'. ... 'You’d be surprised' wouldn’t be a bad motto either.”

Thinking Looks Book Different Seems Interest Differences Teach Kings Quotations Motto Lear Hegel

Author:Ludwig Wittgenstein

“I think one of the things you and I have to learn is that we have to live without the consolation of belonging to a Church.... Of one thing I am certain. The religion of the future will have to be extremely ascetic, and by that I don't mean just going without food and drink.”

Thinking Mean Certain Church One Thing Drink Belonging Consolation Food And Drink

Author:Ludwig Wittgenstein

“Don't think, but look! (PI 66)”

Thinking Looks Carpe Diem Carpe

Author:Ludwig Wittgenstein

“When we can't think for ourselves, we can always quote”

Author:Ludwig Wittgenstein

“I think I summed up my attitude to philosophy when I said: philosophy ought really to be written only as a poetic composition.”

Thinking Said Philosophy Attitude Written Ought Poetic Composition My Attitude

Author:Ludwig Wittgenstein

“You can't think decently if you're not willing to hurt yourself”

Ifs Thinking Hurt Willing

Author:Ludwig Wittgenstein

“A main cause of philosophical disease-an unbalanced diet: one nourishes one's thinking with only one kind of example.”

Thinking Kind Causes Example Disease Philosophical Diets Unbalanced

Author:Ludwig Wittgenstein

“In order to draw a limit to thinking, we should have to think both sides of this limit.”

Thinking Should Order Language Sides Limits Draws Should Have Both Sides

Book:The Tractatus According to Its Own Form

Source: The Tractatus According to Its Own Form

“Only when one thinks even much more madly than the philosophers can one solve their problems.”

Thinking Problem Philosopher Solve

Author: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.”

Ifs Thinking Important Hard Difficult Attitude Steps Bears Circumstances Resolution

Author:Ludwig Wittgenstein

“In order to be able to set a limit to thought, we should have to find both sides of the limit thinkable (i.e. we should have to be able to think what cannot be thought).”

Thinking Should Able Order Sides Limits Should Have Both Sides Thinkable

Book:Wittgenstein's Tractatus

Source: Wittgenstein's Tractatus

“A French politician once wrote that it was a peculiarity of the French language that in it words occur in the order in which one thinks them.”

Thinking Order Language Politician French Language

Book:Philosophical Investigations

Source: Philosophical Investigations

About the Author

Born: April 26, 1889
Died: April 29, 1951
Known for: Philosopher
Quotes: 391

Related Topics

Philosophy Ifs Language Philosophical World Thinking Logic Doe Way Knows Mean Use Philosopher Propositions Form Men Problem Should Facts Believe

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Books & Sources

Tractatus Logico-PhilosophicusRelated source material

Philosophical InvestigationsRelated source material

Notebooks, 1914-1916Related source material

On CertaintyRelated source material

Philosophical Occasions, 1912-1951Related source material

A companion to Wittgenstein'sRelated source material

Tractatus Logico PhilosophicusRelated source material

Culture and ValueRelated source material

The Tractatus According to Its Own FormRelated source material

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus: German and EnglishRelated source material

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