Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein was an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. Wittgenstein regarded by many as the greatest philosopher of the 20th century. Thoughtful Ludwig Wittgenstein quotes will encourage you to think a little deeper than you usually would and broaden your perspective.
If you’re searching for deep philosophy quotes that perfectly capture what you’d like to say or just want to feel inspired yourself, browse through an amazing collection of insightful Rene Descartes quotes, famous Thomas Hobbes quotes, and Al-Ghazali quotes.
Most Famous Ludwig Wittgenstein Quotes
I act with complete certainty. But this certainty is my own.
There is no more light in a genius than in any other honest man – but he has a particular kind of lens to concentrate this light into a burning point.
A tautology’s truth is certain, a proposition’s possible, a contradiction’s impossible
When we can’t think for ourselves, we can always quote.
The real question of life after death isn’t whether or not it exists, but even if it does what problem this really solves.
Like everything metaphysical the harmony between thought and reality is to be found in the grammar of the language.
Philosophy is like trying to open a safe with a combination lock: each little adjustment of the dials seems to achieve nothing, only when everything is in place does the door open.
Never stay up on the barren heights of cleverness, but come down into the green valleys of silliness.
Like everything metaphysical, the harmony between thought and reality is to be found in the grammar of the language.
Genius is talent exercised with courage.
Death is not an event in life: we do not live to experience death. If we take an eternity to mean not infinite temporal duration but timelessness, then eternal life belongs to those who live in the present.
The riddle does not exist. If a question can be put at all, then it can also be answered.
But doesn’t it come out here that knowledge is related to a decision?
Uttering a word is like striking a note on the keyboard of the imagination.
Language is a part of our organism and no less complicated than it.
Inspirational Ludwig Wittgenstein Quotes
The World and Life are one.
Don’t for heaven’s sake, be afraid of talking nonsense! But you must pay attention to your nonsense.
How small a thought it takes to fill a life.
Someone who knows too much finds it hard not to lie.
The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.
Don’t think, but look!
If we spoke a different language, we would perceive a somewhat different world.
Nothing is more important than the formation of fictional concepts, which teach us at last to understand our own.
The philosopher strives to find the liberating word, that is, the word that finally permits us to grasp what up to now has intangibly weighed down upon our consciousness.
What can be said at all can be said clearly, and whereof one cannot speak thereof one must be silent.
Religion is, as it were, the calm bottom of the sea at its deepest point, which remains calm however high the waves on the surface may be.
When I am furious about something, I sometimes beat the ground or a tree with my walking stick. But I certainly do not believe that the ground is to blame or that my beating can help anything… And all rites are of this kind.
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.
To convince someone of the truth, it is not enough to state it, but rather one must find the path from error to truth.
Philosophy is not a theory but an activity.
A serious and good philosophical work could be written consisting entirely of jokes.
For a truly religious man nothing is tragic.
Is my understanding only blindness to my own lack of understanding? It often seems so to me.
The common behavior of mankind is the system of reference by means of which we interpret an unknown language.
Only describe, don’t explain.
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.
Not how the world is, but that it is, is the mystery.
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.
We are asleep. Our Life is a dream. But we wake up sometimes, just enough to know that we are dreaming.
This is how philosophers should salute each other: Take your time.
Amazing Ludwig Wittgenstein Quotes
Aim at being loved without being admired.
Nothing is so difficult as not deceiving oneself.
You get tragedy where the tree, instead of bending, breaks
Idealism leads to realism if it is strictly thought out.
Language disguises thought.
If you use a trick in logic, whom can you be tricking other than yourself?
If people did not sometimes do silly things, nothing intelligent would ever get done.
The problems are solved, not by giving new information, but by arranging what we have known since long.
The logic of the world is prior to all truth and falsehood.
I don’t know why we are here, but I’m pretty sure that it is not in order to enjoy ourselves.
Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language.
Always get rid of theory private object in this way: assume that it constantly changes, but that you do not notice the change because your memory constantly deceives you.
Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.
The human body is the best picture of the human soul.
We feel that even if all possible scientific questions be answered, the problems of life have still not been touched at all. Of course, there is then no question left, and just this is the answer.
Hell isn’t other people. Hell is yourself.
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.
At the end of reasons comes persuasion.
What curious attitude scientists have: ‘We still don’t know that, but it is knowable and it is only a matter of time before we get to know it!’ As if that went without saying.
If people never did silly things nothing intelligent would ever get done.
A confession has to be part of your new life.
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.
What can be shown, cannot be said.
It is a hypothesis that the sun will rise tomorrow: and this means that we do not know whether it will rise.
Knowledge is in the end based on acknowledgment.
To pray is to think about the meaning of life.
What is the proof that I know something? Most certainly not my saying I know it.
We are asleep. Life is a dream. But we wake up sometimes, just enough to know that we are dreaming.
