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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.
Ludwig Wittgenstein -
Nothing is more important than the formation of fictional concepts, which teach us at last to understand our own.
Ludwig Wittgenstein
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It is not by recognizing the want of courage in someone else that you acquire courage yourself..
Ludwig Wittgenstein -
A new word is like a fresh seed sown on the ground of the discussion.
Ludwig Wittgenstein -
We must plow through the whole of language.
Ludwig Wittgenstein -
What should we gain by a definition, as it can only lead us to other undefined terms?
Ludwig Wittgenstein -
A proposition is completely logically analyzed if its grammar is made completely clear: no matter what idiom it may be written or expressed in...
Ludwig Wittgenstein -
The world and life are one. (5.621)
Ludwig Wittgenstein
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206. If someone asked us 'but is that true?' we might say 'yes' to him; and if he demanded grounds we might say 'I can't give you any grounds, but if you learn more you too will think the same.'
Ludwig Wittgenstein -
Philosophieren ist: falsche Argumente zurückweisen.
Ludwig Wittgenstein -
If I have exhausted the justifications, I have reached bedrock and my spade is turned. Then I am inclined to say: 'This is simply what I do.'
Ludwig Wittgenstein -
The real discovery is the one which enables me to stop doing philosophy when I want to. The one that gives philosophy peace, so that it is no longer tormented by questions which bring itself into question.
Ludwig Wittgenstein -
My difficulty is only an - enormous - difficulty of expression.
Ludwig Wittgenstein -
The aim of philosophy is to erect a wall at the point where language stops anyway.
Ludwig Wittgenstein
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'It is necessary to be given the prop that all elementary props are given.' This is not necessary because it is even impossible. There is no such prop! That all elementary props are given is SHOWN by there being none having an elementary sense which is not given.
Ludwig Wittgenstein -
94. I did not get my picture of the world by satisfying myself of its correctness; nor do I have it because I am satisfied of its correctness. No: it is the inherited background against which I distinguish between true and false.
Ludwig Wittgenstein -
I don't know why we are here, but I'm pretty sure that it is not in order to enjoy ourselves.
Ludwig Wittgenstein -
It is one of the chief skills of the philosopher not to occupy himself with questions which do not concern him.
Ludwig Wittgenstein -
Man könnte sagen: „Genie ist Mut im Talent.'
Ludwig Wittgenstein -
Is it just I who cannot found a school, or can a philosopher never do so?
Ludwig Wittgenstein
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One can mistrust one's own senses, but not one's own belief. If there were a verb meaning 'to believe falsely,' it would not have any significant first person, present indicative.
Ludwig Wittgenstein -
The ceremonial (hot or cold) as opposed to the haphazard (lukewarm) characterizes piety.
Ludwig Wittgenstein -
Never stay up on the barren heights of cleverness, but come down into the green valleys of silliness.
Ludwig Wittgenstein -
If people did not sometimes do silly things, nothing intelligent would ever get done.
Ludwig Wittgenstein