xy

@xy, member from Sept. 25, 2023

Favourite quotes (21448)

“The philosopher is not a citizen of any community of ideas, that is what makes him a philosopher.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-British philosopher

Source: Zettel

“Suppose someone were to say: 'Imagine this butterfly exactly as it is, but ugly instead of beautiful'?!”

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-British philosopher

Source: Zettel

“The face is the soul of the body.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein book Philosophical Investigations

Source: Philosophical Investigations

“378. Knowledge is in the end based on acknowledgement.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein book On Certainty

On Certainty (1969)

“If I have exhausted the justifications, I have reached bedrock and my spade is turned. Then I am inclined to say: "This is simply what I do."”

Ludwig Wittgenstein book Philosophical Investigations

§ 217
Source: Philosophical Investigations (1953)

“This sort of thing has got to be stopped. Bad philosophers are like slum landlords. It's my job to put them out of business.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-British philosopher

“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.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-British philosopher

Source: Culture and Value (1980), p. 36e

“This is how philosophers should salute each other: ‘Take your time.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-British philosopher

“Tell them I've had a wonderful life.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-British philosopher

Last words, to his doctor's wife (28 April 1951)–as quoted in Ludwig Wittgenstein : A Memoir (1966) by Norman Malcolm, p. 100
1930s-1951

“Everything that can be thought at all can be thought clearly. Everything that can be said can be said clearly.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein book Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

Source: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

“One often makes a remark and only later sees how true it is.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-British philosopher

Journal entry (11 October 1914), p. 10e
1910s, Notebooks 1914-1916

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

Ludwig Wittgenstein book Philosophical Investigations

Pt II, p. 162
Philosophical Investigations (1953)
Context: One can mistrust one's own senses, but not one's own belief.
If there were a verb meaning "to believe falsely," it would not have any significant first person, present indicative.

“I give no sources, because it is indifferent to me
whether what I have thought has already been
thought before me by another.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein book Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

Source: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

“The eternal life is given to those who live in the present.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-British philosopher

“Logic takes care of itself; all we have to do is to look and see how it does it.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-British philosopher

Journal entry (13 October 1914), also in Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (§ 5.47)
1910s, Notebooks 1914-1916

“115. If you tried to doubt everything you would not get as far as doubting anything. The game of doubting itself presupposes certainty.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein book On Certainty

Source: On Certainty (1969)

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

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-British philosopher

“A picture held us captive. And we could not get outside it, for it lay in our language and language seemed to repeat it to us inexorably.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein book Philosophical Investigations

Source: Philosophical Investigations

“Don't think, but look! (PI 66)”

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-British philosopher

“Sometimes, in doing philosophy, one just wants to utter an inarticulate sound.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-British philosopher