569 Quotes by Ludwig Wittgenstein

A propositional sign, applied and thought out, is a thought. A thought is a proposition with a sense.

Philosophy aims at the logical clarification of thoughts. Philosophy is not a body of doctrine but an activity. A philosophical work consists essentially of elucidations.

One is unable to notice something because it is always before one's eyes.

A new word is like a fresh seed sewn on the ground of the discussion.

A French politician once wrote that it was a peculiarity of the French language that in it words occur in the order in which one thinks them.

Suppose we think while we talk or write--I mean, as we normally do--we shall not in general say that we think quicker than we talk, but the thought seems not to be separate from the expression.

It seems to me that, in every culture, I come across a chapter headed ''Wisdom.'' And then I know exactly what is going to follow: ''Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.''

My aim is: to teach you to pass from a piece of disguised nonsense to something that is patent nonsense.

I am still at Trattenbach, surrounded, as ever, by odiousness and baseness. I know that human beings on the average are not worth much anywhere, but here they are much more good-for-nothing and irresponsible than elsewhere.