xy

@xy, member from Sept. 25, 2023

Favourite quotes (21448)

“When you are philosophizing you have to descend into primeval chaos and feel at home there.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-British philosopher

Source: Culture and Value

“Language disguises thought.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein book Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

Source: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

“Philosophers are often like little children, who first scribble random lines on a piece of paper with their pencils, and now ask an adult "What is that?"”

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-British philosopher

It happened like this: the grown-up had drawn pictures for the child several times and said "this is a man," "this is a house," etc. And then the child makes some marks too and asks: what's this then? p. 17e

Ref: en.wikiquote.org - Ludwig Wittgenstein / Quotes / Culture and Value (1980)
1930s-1951, Philosophical Occasions 1912-1951 (1993)
Source: Philosophical Occasions: 1912-1951

“An honest religious thinker is like a tightrope walker. He almost looks as though he were walking on nothing but air. His support is the slenderest imaginable. And yet it really is possible to walk on it.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-British philosopher

“Ethics and aesthetics are one.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein book Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

Source: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

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

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-British philosopher

6.43
Die Welt des Glücklichen ist eine andere als die des Unglücklichen
1920s, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922)

“For an answer which cannot be expressed the question too cannot be expressed.

The riddle does not exist.

If a question can be put at all, then it can also be answered.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein book Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

Source: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

“253. At the core of all well-founded belief, lies belief that is unfounded.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein book On Certainty

Source: On Certainty (1969)

“What can be shown, cannot be said.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-British philosopher

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

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-British philosopher

“We feel that even if all possible scientific questions be answered, the problems of life have still not been touched at all.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein book Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

Source: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

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

Ludwig Wittgenstein book On Certainty

Source: On Certainty

“We are asleep. Our Life is a dream. But we wake up sometimes, just enough to know that we are dreaming.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-British philosopher

Attributed from posthumous publications

“If you and I are to live religious lives, it mustn't be that we talk a lot about religion, but that our manner of life is different. It is my belief that only if you try to be helpful to other people will you in the end find your way to God.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-British philosopher

“How small a thought it takes to fill a life.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-British philosopher

“Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of our language.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein book Philosophical Investigations

Die Philosophie ist ein Kampf gegen die Verhexung unsres Verstandes durch die Mittel unserer Sprache.
§ 109
Source: Philosophical Investigations (1953)

“The problems are solved, not by giving new information, but by arranging what we have known since long.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein book Philosophical Investigations

Source: Philosophical Investigations

“467. 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 them: "This fellow isn't insane. We are only doing philosophy."”

Ludwig Wittgenstein book On Certainty

Source: On Certainty (1969)

“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 it.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-British philosopher

Source: Culture and Value (1980), p. 42e

“Only describe, don't explain.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-British philosopher