Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein was an Austrian-British born philosopher. Wittgenstein was born in a wealthy family in Austria in 1889 and after studying in Berlin, he earned his doctorate from the University of Cambridge in 1929. Bertrand Russell was one of his teachers at the University and called him the perfect example of a genius. He was employed as a teacher at the University of Cambridge for 18 years and during that time he worked on subjects like ‘the logic’, ‘philosophy of language’ and ‘philosophy of mathematics’ among others. His only published work was ‘Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus’ in 1921. However, it is also true that he conducted extensive research on the subject and all his manuscripts were published in the form of a book named ‘Philosophical Investigations’ after his death. Wittgenstein was a tortured genius, who suffered from depression and suicidal tendencies, which had also forced him to give up his academic pursuits plenty of times. Ludwig Wittgenstein’s books, work, manuscripts and other writings give an insight about his thoughts on several topics. We have scanned his works to collect some of his most famous quotes. Following are some of the most famous quotes from the life and works of Ludwig Wittgenstein, one of the great philosophers of the 20th century.
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
Ethics and aesthetics are one.
Ludwig Wittgenstein
When we can't think for ourselves, we can always quote
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.
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?
It is not humanly possible to gather immediately from it what the logic of language is. Language disguises thought.
Ludwig Wittgenstein
In philosophy it is always good to put a question instead of an answer to a question. For an answer to the philosophical question may easily be unfair; disposing of it by means of another question is not.
Ludwig Wittgenstein
The human body is the best picture of the human soul.
Most of the propositions and questions to be found in philosophical works are not false but nonsensical.
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Christianity is not a doctrine, not, I mean, a theory about what has happened & will happen to the human soul, but a description of something that actually takes place in human life.
Concerning that which cannot be talked about, we should not say anything.
Ludwig Wittgenstein
You must always be puzzled by mental illness. The thing I would dread most, if I became mentally ill, would be your adopting a common sense attitude; that you could take it for granted that I was deluded
Perhaps what is inexpressible (what I find mysterious and am not able to express) is the background against which whatever I could express has its meaning.
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.
Ludwig Wittgenstein
People nowadays think that scientists exist to instruct them, poets, musicians, etc. to give them pleasure. The idea that these have something to teach them - that does not occur to them.
It is so characteristic, that just when the mechanics of reproduction are so vastly improved, there are fewer and fewer people who know how music should be played.
Philosophy, as we use the word, is a fight against the fascination which forms of expression exert upon us.
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Language is a labyrinth of paths. You approach from one side and know your way about; you approach the same place from another side and no longer know your way about.
If, for example, you were to think more deeply about death, then it would be truly strange if, in doing so, you did not encounter new images, new linguistic fields.
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 is the background against which whatever I could express has its meaning. )
