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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

“It used to be said that God could create anything except what would be contrary to the laws of logic. The truth is that we could not say what an "illogical" world would look like.”

World Philosophy God Logic

Book:Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

Source: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

“Logic pervades the world; the limits of the world are also the limits of logic.”

World Decision Limits Logic

Author:Ludwig Wittgenstein

“Humor is not a mood but a way of looking at the world.”

World Way Humor Mood

Author: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 with the idea that the truth will ultimately be known; that there is nothing good or desirable about scientific knowledge and that mankind, in seeking it, is falling into a trap. It is by no means obvious that this is not how things are.”

“To believe in a God means to see that the facts of the world are not the end of the matter.”

World Believe Mean Ends Matter God Facts

Book:Notebooks, 1914-1916

Source: Notebooks, 1914-1916

“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.”

World Happiness Grace Fate Renounce Amenities

Book:Notebooks, 1914-1916

Source: Notebooks, 1914-1916

“I did not get my picture of the world by satisfying myself of its correctness; nor do I have it because I am satisfied of its correctness. No: it is the inherited background against which I distinguish between true and false.”

World Reality Backgrounds Satisfied Satisfying Correctness True And False

Book:On Certainty

Source: On Certainty

“Man is the microcosm: I am my world.”

Men World Microcosm

Book:Notebooks, 1914-1916

Source: Notebooks, 1914-1916

“If the will did not exist, neither would there be that centre of the world, which we call the I.”

Ifs World Centre

Book:Notebooks, 1914-1916

Source: Notebooks, 1914-1916

“The world divides into facts.”

World Facts Divides

Book:Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

Source: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

“To believe in a God means to understand the question about the meaning of life. To believe in a God means to see that the facts of the world are not the end of the matter. To believe in God means to see that life has a meaning.”

World Believe Mean Ends Matter Facts Meaning Of Life Believe In God

Book:Notebooks, 1914-1916

Source: Notebooks, 1914-1916

“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

“What has history to do with me? Mine is the first and only world! I want to report how I find the world. What others have told me about the world is a very small and incidental part of my experience. I have to judge the world, to measure things.”

World Want Firsts Mines Judging Reports Sure Thing

Author:Ludwig Wittgenstein

“That the world is, is the mystical.”

Author: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.”

Ifs World Doe Happens Would Be Values

Book:Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

Source: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

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

Author:Ludwig Wittgenstein

“My propositions serve as elucidations in the following way: anyone who understands me eventually recognizes them as nonsensical, when he has used them--as steps--to climb up beyond them. (He must, so to speak, throw away the ladder after he has climbed up it.) He must transcend these propositions, and then he will see the whole world aright.”

World Way Whole Used Speak Language Steps Philosophical Following Whole World Climbs Propositions Ladders Understand Me Nonsensical

Book:Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

Source: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

“The subject does not belong to the world; rather, it is a limit of the world.”

World Doe Self Subjects Limits Solipsism

Book:Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

Source: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

“The philosophical I is not the human being, not the human body or the human soul with the psychological properties, but the metaphysical subject, the boundary (not a part) of the world.”

World Humans Soul Self Body Human Beings Subjects Philosophical Property Boundaries Psychological Metaphysical Human Body Human Soul

Book:Notebooks, 1914-1916

Source: Notebooks, 1914-1916

“For life in the present there is no death. Death is not an event in life. It is not a fact in the world.”

World Facts Death Events Events In Life

Book:Notebooks, 1914-1916

Source: Notebooks, 1914-1916

“The sense of the world must lie outside the world... What we cannot speak about we must remain silent about... What can be described can happen too, and what is excluded by the laws of causality cannot be described.”

World Happens Law Lying Speak Silent Excluded Causality

Author:Ludwig Wittgenstein

“The fact that we can describe the motions of the world using Newtonian mechanics tell us nothing about the world. The fact that we do, does tell us something about the world.”

World Doe Facts Mechanic

Author:Ludwig Wittgenstein

“The 2 timeless drivers that underpin the behavior of every generation: the need to belong and the need to be significant. The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.”

World Needs Mean Language Generations Limits Behavior Significant Drivers Timeless

Author:Ludwig Wittgenstein

“The limits of my language means the limits of my world.”

World Mean Wisdom Language Learning Communication Limits Philosophical Language Words Language And Communication Languages Communication Power Of Language Language And Power International Language

Author:Ludwig Wittgenstein

“Logic is not a body of doctrine, but a mirror-image of the world. Logic is transcendental.”

World Body Reality Logic Philosophical Mirrors Doctrine Transcendental Mirror Image

Book:Tractatus Logico Philosophicus

Source: Tractatus Logico Philosophicus

“The world is independent of my will.”

World Philosophical Independent

Book:Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus: German and English

Source: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus: German and English

“The logic of the world is prior to all truth and falsehood.”

World Truth Logic Philosophical Falsehood Truth And Falsehood

Book:Notebooks, 1914-1916

Source: Notebooks, 1914-1916

“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.”

People Ifs World Way Mean Doe Important Humor Spirit Deeper Mood Germany Nazi Nazi Germany

Author:Ludwig Wittgenstein

“I am my world.”

Book:Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

Source: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

“Not how the world is, but that it is, is the mystery.”

Author:Ludwig Wittgenstein

“The world is everything that is the case.”

Author:Ludwig Wittgenstein

“The world of the happy is quite different from that of the unhappy.”

World Different Unhappy

Author: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.”

Knows World Doe Eye Life Is Lying Purpose Evil Father Fields This World Connected Meaning Of Life Visuals Good And Evil Comparison Purpose Of Life Penetrate

Author:Ludwig Wittgenstein

“The world of those who are happy is different from the world of those who are not.”

World Different Happiness Determination Great Happiness

Author:Ludwig Wittgenstein

“If we spoke a different language, we would perceive a somewhat different world.”

“The world is the totality of facts, not of things”

World Facts Totality

Book:Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

Source: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

“It is obvious that an imagined #‎ world , however different it may be from the real one, must have something - a form - in common with it.”

World May Different Real Form Common Obvious Real Ones

Book:Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

Source: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

“The world is made up of facts, not things.”

World Made Facts

Author:Ludwig Wittgenstein

“The depressed man lives in a depressed world.”

Men World Therapy Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Cognitive Therapy

Author:Ludwig Wittgenstein

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

Popular Topics

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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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