40 Reasoning Ludwig Wittgenstein Quotes

The world is everything that is the case.Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921), (Routledge & Kegan Paul, ed. 1922), Section 1, Page 31

Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language.Philosophical Investigations (1953), (Basil Blackwell, ed. 1968), Part I, Section 109, Page 47e

Tell me how you are searching and I will tell you what you are searching for.Philosophical Remarks (1975), (Barnes & Noble Books, ed. 1975), Page 67

The wish precedes the event, the will accompanies it.Notebooks (1914-1916), (Harper & Brothers, ed. 1961), Page 88e

The human body is the best picture of the human soul.Philosophical Investigations (1953), (Basil Blackwell, ed. 1968), Part II, Chapter iii, Page 178e

Genius is talent exercised with courage.Culture and Value (1977), (Basil Blackwell, ed. 1980), Page 38e

Never stay up on the barren heights of cleverness, but come down into the green valleys of silliness.Culture and Value (1977), (Basil Blackwell, ed. 1980), Page 76e

Nothing is so difficult as not deceiving oneself.Culture and Value (1977), (Basil Blackwell, ed. 1980), Page 34e

What can be shown cannot be said.Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921), (Routledge & Kegan Paul, ed. 1922), Section 4.1212, Page 79

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.Culture and Value (1977), (Basil Blackwell, ed. 1980), Page 53e

One often makes a remark and only later sees how true it is.Notebooks (1914-1916), (Harper & Brothers, ed. 1961), Page 10e

The world of the happy is quite another than that of the unhappy.Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921), (Routledge & Kegan Paul, ed. 1922), Section 6.43, Page 185

If people did not sometimes do silly things, nothing intelligent would ever get done.Culture and Value (1977), (Basil Blackwell, ed. 1980), Page 50e

The world is the totality of facts, not of things.Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921), (Routledge & Kegan Paul, ed. 1922), Section 1.1, Page 31

You get tragedy where the tree, instead of bending, breaks.Culture and Value (1977), (Basil Blackwell, ed. 1980), Page 1e

What is thinkable is also possible.Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921), (Routledge & Kegan Paul, ed. 1922), Section 3.02, Page 43

When one is frightened of the truth then it is never the whole truth that one has an inkling of.Notebooks (1914-1916), (Harper & Brothers, ed. 1961), Page 13e

To convince someone of the truth, it is not enough to state it, but rather one must find the path from error to truth.Philosophical Occasions (1912-1951), (Hacket Pub. Co., ed. 1993), Chapter 7, Page 119

It is one of the chief skills of the philosopher not to occupy himself with questions which do not concern him.Notebooks (1914-1916), (Harper & Brothers, ed. 1961), Page 44e

Resting on your laurels is as dangerous as resting when you are walking in the snow. You doze off and die in your sleep.Culture and Value (1977), (Basil Blackwell, ed. 1980), Page 35e

The problems are solved, not by giving new information, but by arranging what we have always known.Philosophical Investigations (1953), (Basil Blackwell, ed. 1968), Part I, Section 109, Page 47e

A man’s thinking goes on within his consciousness in a seclusion in comparison with which any physical seclusion is an exhibition to public view.Philosophical Investigations (1953), (Basil Blackwell, ed. 1968), Part II, Chapter xi, Page 222e

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.Philosophical Occasions (1912-1951), (Hacket Pub. Co., ed. 1993), Chapter 9, Page 183

Humour is not a mood but a way of looking at the world.Culture and Value (1977), (Basil Blackwell, ed. 1980), Page 78e

A nothing would serve just as well as a something about which nothing could be said.Philosophical Investigations (1953), (Basil Blackwell, ed. 1968), Part I, Section 304, Page 102e

How small a thought it takes to fill someone’s whole life!Culture and Value (1977), (Basil Blackwell, ed. 1980), Page 50e

An ‘inner process’ stands in need of outward criteria.Philosophical Investigations (1953), (Basil Blackwell, ed. 1968), Part I, Section 580, Page 153e

Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921), (Routledge & Kegan Paul, ed. 1922), Section 7, Page 189

A new word is like a fresh seed sewn on the ground of the discussion.Culture and Value (1977), (Basil Blackwell, ed. 1980), Page 2e

The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921), (Routledge & Kegan Paul, ed. 1922), Section 5.6, Page 149

Uttering a word is like striking a note on the keyboard of the imagination.Philosophical Investigations (1953), (Basil Blackwell, ed. 1968), Part I, Section 6, Page 4e

To imagine a language means to imagine a form of life.Philosophical Investigations (1953), (Basil Blackwell, ed. 1968), Part I, Section 19, Page 8e

The meaning of a word is its use in the language.Philosophical Investigations (1953), (Basil Blackwell, ed. 1968), Part I, Section 43, Page 20e

Logic is not a theory but a reflexion of the world. Logic is transcendental.Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921), (Routledge & Kegan Paul, ed. 1922), Section 6.13, Page 169

If you use a trick in logic, whom can you be tricking other than yourself?Culture and Value (1977), (Basil Blackwell, ed. 1980), Page 24e

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.Culture and Value (1977), (Basil Blackwell, ed. 1980), Page 42e

If by eternity is understood not endless temporal duration but timelessness, then he lives eternally who lives in the present. Our life is endless in the way that our visual field is without limit.Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921), (Routledge & Kegan Paul, ed. 1922), Section 6.4311, Page 185

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.Culture and Value (1977), (Basil Blackwell, ed. 1980), Page 36e

Knowledge is in the end based on acknowledgement.On Certainty (1969), (Harper & Row, ed. 1972), Section 378, Page 49e

Someone who knows too much finds it hard not to lie.Culture and Value (1977), (Basil Blackwell, ed. 1980), Page 64e

Hell isn’t other people. Hell is yourself.No source