Ludwig Wittgenstein Quotes

Rightly defined philosophy is simply the love of wisdom.

Truth is the object of philosophy, but not always of philosophers.

Dogmatism and skepticism are both, in a sense, absolute philosophies; one is certain of knowing, the other of not knowing. What philosophy should dissipate is certainty, whether of knowledge or ignorance.

What is your aim in philosophy? To show the fly the way out of the fly-bottle.

Science is what you know. Philosophy is what you don't know.

In philosophy you're never 100% sure. You're always undermining what you think you know. That's always been my philosophy and my intellectual ethos.

I am a philosopher, not a scientist, and we philosophers are better at questions than answers.

Many scientists think that philosophy has no place, so for me it's a sad time because the role of reflection, contemplation, meditation, self inquiry, insight, intuition, imagination, creativity, free will, is in a way not given any importance, which is the domain of philosophers.

The same principles which at first view lead to skepticism, pursued to a certain point, bring men back to common sense.

The belief of our Reason is an Exercise of Faith, and Faith is an Act of Reason.

I'm not sure what theory is, unless it's the pursuit of fundamental questions.

Skepticism is the first step on the road to philosophy.

Theory not only formulates what we know but also tells us what we want to know, that is, the questions to which an answer is needed.

The point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as not to seem worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it.

It's hard to find logic in things sometimes. That's why I can't analyze things too much, because it often doesn't make much sense.

I have always been much better at asking questions than knowing what the answers were.

The wise man doesn't give the right answers, he poses the right questions.

Philosophy begins in wonder. And, at the end, when philosophic thought has done its best, the wonder remains.

Logic is not a body of doctrine, but a mirror-image of the world. Logic is transcendental.

I know that I don’t know.

Descartes, the father of modern philosophy ... would never-so he assures us-have been led to construct his philosophy if he had had only one teacher, for then he would have believed what he had been told; but, finding that his professors disagreed with each other, he was forced to conclude that no existing doctrine was certain.

There is no learning without having to pose a question. And a question requires doubt.

We cannot begin with complete doubt.

On the one hand, philosophy is to keep us thinking about things that we may come to know, and on the other hand to keep us modestly aware of how much that seems like knowledge isn't knowledge

There are two threats to reason, the opinion that one knows the truth about the most important things and the opinion that there is no truth about them. Both of these opinions are fatal to philosophy; the first asserts that the quest for truth is unnecessary, while the second asserts that it is impossible. The Socratic knowledge of ignorance, which I take to be the beginning point of all philosophy, defines the sensible middle ground between two extremes.