Ludwig Wittgenstein: Trending quotes

“If I cannot say a priori what elementary propositions there are, then the attempt to do so must lead to obvious nonsense.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein

5.5571
Original German: Wenn ich die Elementarsätze nicht a priori angeben kann, dann muss es zu offenbarem Unsinn führen, sie angeben zu wollen.
1920s, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922)

“The difficulty in philosophy is to say no more than we know.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Source: 1930s-1951, The Blue Book (c. 1931–1935; published 1965), p. 45

“"I never believed in God before." — that I understand. But not: "I never really believed in Him before."”

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Source: Culture and Value (1980), p. 53e

God , Understanding

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

Ludwig Wittgenstein

5.632
Original German: Das Subjekt gehört nicht zur Welt, sondern es ist eine Grenze der Welt.
1920s, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922)

World

“A tautology's truth is certain, a proposition's possible, a contradiction's impossible.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein book Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

Certain, possible, impossible: here we have the first indication of the scale that we need in the theory of probability.
4.464
Original German: Die Wahrheit der Tautologie ist gewiss, des Satzes möglich, der Kontradiktion unmöglich
Source: 1920s, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922)

Truth

“I don't know why we are here, but I'm pretty sure that it is not in order to enjoy ourselves.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein

As quoted in The Beginning of the End (2004) by Peter Hershey, p. 109
Also, as quoted in "The Relentless Rise of Science as Fun", by Jeremy Burgess, in New Scientist, Volume 143, Issues 1932-1945, originally published 1994.
Attributed from posthumous publications

“Our greatest stupidities may be very wise.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Source: Culture and Value (1980), p. 39e

Stupidity

“An entire mythology is stored within our language.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Source: 1930s-1951, Philosophical Occasions 1912-1951 (1993), Ch. 7 : Remarks on Frazer's Golden Bough, p. 133

“You won't — I really believe — get too much out of reading it. Because you won't understand it; the content will seem strange to you. In reality, it isn't strange to you, for the point is ethical. I once wanted to give a few words in the foreword which now actually are not in it, which, however, I'll write to you now because they might be a key for you: I wanted to write that my work consists of two parts: of the one which is here, and of everything which I have not written. And precisely this second part is the important one.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein

On his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, in a letter to Ludwig von Ficker (1919), published in Wittgenstein : Sources and Perspectives (1979) by C. Grant Luckhard
1910s

Understanding , Reality , Reading , Parting

“The problems are dissolved in the actual sense of the word — like a lump of sugar in water.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Source: 1930s-1951, Philosophical Occasions 1912-1951 (1993), Ch. 9 : Philosophy, p. 183

Problem , Sense , Water

“You could attach prices to ideas. Some cost a lot some little. … And how do you pay for ideas? I believe: with courage.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Source: Culture and Value (1980), p. 60e

Idea , Courage

“I never believed in God before.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein

that I understand. But not: "I never really believed in Him before."
Source: Culture and Value (1980), p. 53e