Ludwig Wittgenstein Quotes

Language can be very adept at hiding the truth.

Language disguises the thought; so that from the external form of the clothes one cannot infer the form of the thought they clothe, because the external form of the clothes is constructed with quite another object than to let the form of the body be recognized.

Speech was given to man to disguise his thoughts.

God gave humans language so they could conceal their thoughts from one another.

It is not humanly possible to gather immediately from it what the logic of language is. Language disguises thought.

Language can be a way of hiding your thoughts and preventing communication.

Words themselves - the very material of our discourse increasingly take on masks or disguises.

Words are more treacherous and powerful than we think.

Nothing is so easy as to deceive one’s self when one does not lack wit and is familiar with all the niceties of language. Language is a prostitute queen who descends and rises to all roles. Disguises herself, arrays herself in fine apparel, hides her head and effaces herself; an advocate who has an answer for everything, who has always foreseen everything, and who assumes a thousand forms in order to be right. The most honorable of men is he who thinks best and acts best, but the most powerful is he who is best able to talk and write

There are many other ways in which language can be used to manipulate an audience. one obvious way is to simply lie.

All words are masks and the lovelier they are, the more they are meant to conceal.

There is no language without deceit.

Like the weaver, the writer works on the wrong side of his material. He has only to do with the language, and it is thus that he suddenly finds himself surrounded by sense.

The gift of words is the gift of deception and illusion.

Reason" in language - oh, what an old deceptive female she is! I am afraid we are not rid of God because we still have faith in grammar.

By stretching language we'll distort it sufficiently to wrap ourselves in it and hide.

There are some that only employ words for the purpose of disguising their thoughts.

Language is a machine for making falsehoods.

The corruption of man is followed by the corruption of language. ... In due time, the fraud is manifest, and words lose all power to stimulate the understanding or the affections.

Eighty percent of all questions are statements in disguise.

Euphemisms, like fashions, have their day and pass, perhaps to return at another time. Like the guests at a masquerade ball, they enjoy social approval only so long as they retain the capacity for deception.

Hide the ideas, but so that people find them. The most important will be the most hidden.

Symbolism is the language of the Mysteries. By symbols men have ever sought to communicate to each other those thoughts which transcend the limitations of language.

Never underestimate the role pretension plays when it comes to creating euphemistic language.

When an idea is wanting, a word can always be found to take its place.