Ludwig Wittgenstein Quotes
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'I never believed in God before.' - that I understand. But not: 'I never really believed in Him before.'
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If you want to go down deep you do not need to travel far; indeed, you don't have to leave your most immediate and familiar surroundings.
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I believe that one of the things Christianity says is that sound doctrines are all useless. That you have to change your life. (Or the direction of your life.)
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1. If you do know that here is one hand, we'll grant you all the rest.
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Don't for heaven's sake, be afraid of talking nonsense! But you must pay attention to your nonsense.
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You could attach prices to thoughts. Some cost a lot, some a little. And how does one pay for thoughts? The answer, I think, is: with courage.
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'Fare well!' 'A whole world of pain is contained in these words.' How can it be contained in them? - It is bound up in them. The words are like an acorn from which an oak tree can grow.
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To convince someone of the truth, it is not enough to state it, but rather one must find the path from error to truth.
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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.
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A confession has to be part of your new life.
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Schiller writes in a letter to Goethe, 17 December 1795 of a ‘poetic mood’. I think I know what he means, I think I am familiar with it myself. It is the mood of receptivity to nature and one in which one’s thoughts seem as vivid as nature itself.
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A philosopher who is not taking part in discussions is like a boxer who never goes into the ring.
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To obey a rule, to make a report, to give an order, to play a game of chess, are customs (uses, institutions)
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'Everything is already there in....' How does it come about that an arrow points? Doesn't it seem to carry in it something besides itself? - 'No, not the dead line on paper; only the psychical thing, the meaning, can do that.' - That is both true and false. The arrow points only in the application that a living being makes of it.
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Man has to awaken to wonder - and so perhaps do peoples. Science is a way of sending him to sleep again.
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An entire mythology is stored within our language.
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I am my world. (The microcosm.) (5.63)
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When I obey a rule, I do not choose. I obey the rule blindly.
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Though a state of affairs that would contravene the laws of physics can be represented by us spatially, one that would contravene the laws of geometry cannot. (3.0321)
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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.
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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.
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If God had looked into our minds he would not have been able to see there whom we were speaking of.
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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.
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The thought is the significant proposition. (4)