Quotes from Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

“Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein, quote from Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

“Death is not an event in life: we do not live to experience death. If we take eternity to mean not infinite temporal duration but timelessness, then eternal life belongs to those who live in the present. Our life has no end in the way in which our visual field has no limits.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein, quote from Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

“We feel that even if all possible scientific questions be answered, the problems of life have still not been touched at all.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein, quote from Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

“For an answer which cannot be expressed the question too cannot be expressed.

The riddle does not exist.

If a question can be put at all, then it can also be answered.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein, quote from Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

“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.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein, quote from Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

“Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muß man schweigen.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein, quote from Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

“I give no sources, because it is indifferent to me
whether what I have thought has already been
thought before me by another.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein, quote from Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

“Everything that can be thought at all can be thought clearly. Everything that can be said can be said clearly.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein, quote from Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

“The temporal immortality of the soul of man, that is to say, its eternal survival also after death, is not only in no way guaranteed, but this assumption in the first place will not do for us what we always tried to make it do. Is a riddle solved by the fact that I survive forever? Is this eternal life not as enigmatic as our present one? The solution of the riddle of life in space and time lies outside space and time.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein, quote from Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

“Belief in the causal nexus is superstition.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein, quote from Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

“A tautology's truth is certain, a proposition's possible, a contradiction's impossible.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein, quote from Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

“6.4311
Der Tod ist kein Ereignis des Lebens. Den Tod erlebt man nicht.
Wenn man unter Ewigkeit nicht unendliche Zeitdauer, sondern Unzeitlichkeit versteht, dann lebt der ewig, der in der Gegenwart lebt.
Unser Leben ist ebenso endlos, wie unser Gesichtsfeld grenzenlos ist.


6.4311
Death is not an event of life. Death is not lived through.
If by eternity is understood not endless temporal duration but timelessness, then he lives eternally who lives in the present.
Our life is endless in the way that our visual field is without limit.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein, quote from Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

“Der Zweck der Philosophie ist die logische Klärung der Gedanken.
Die Philosophie ist keine Lehre, sondern eine Tätigkeit.
Ein philosophisches Werk besteht wesentlich aus Erläuterungen.
Das Resultat der Philosophie sind nicht »philosophische Sätze«, sondern das Klarwerden von Sätzen.
Die Philosophie soll die Gedanken, die sonst, gleichsam, trübe und verschwommen sind, klar machen und scharf abgrenzen.

4.112
The object of philosophy is the logical clarification of thoughts.
Philosophy is not a theory but an activity.
A philosophical work consists essentially of elucidations.
The result of philosophy is not a number of "philosophical propositions", but to make propositions clear.
Philosophy should make clear and delimit sharply the thoughts which otherwise are, as it were, opaque and blurred.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein, quote from Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

“In the world everything is as it is and happens as it does happen. In it, there is no value, - and if there were, it would be of no value.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein, quote from Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

“It is not humanly possible to gather immediately from it what the logic of language is. Language disguises thought.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein, quote from Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

“Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall ist.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein, quote from Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

“Most of the propositions and questions to be found in philosophical works are not false but nonsensical.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein, quote from Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

“Our life is endless in the way that our visual field is without limit.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein, quote from Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

“There can never be surprises in logic.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein, quote from Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

“All numbers in logic must be capable of justification.   Or rather it must become plain that there are no numbers in logic.   There are no pre-eminent numbers.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein, quote from Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

“Roughly speaking: to say of two things that they are identical is nonsense, and to say of one thing that it is identical with itself is to say nothing.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein, quote from Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

“The agreement or disagreement or its sense with reality constitutes its truth or falsity.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein, quote from Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

“A logical picture of facts is a thought.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein, quote from Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

“It is not how things are in the world that is mystical, but that it exists”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein, quote from Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

“5.6 The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.
5.61 Logic fills the world: the limits of the world are also its limits.
We cannot therefore say in logic: This and this there is in the world, that there is not.
For that would apparently presuppose that we exclude certain possibilities, and this cannot be the case since otherwise logic must get outside the limits of the world : that is, if it could consider these limits from the other side also.
What we cannot think, that we cannot think: we cannot therefore say what we cannot think.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein, quote from Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

“This book will perhaps only be understood by those who have themselves already thought the thoughts which are expressed in it-or similar thoughts. It is therefore not a text-book. Its object would be attained if it afforded pleasure to one who read it with understanding.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein, quote from Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

“Most propositions and questions, that have been written about philosophical matters, are not false, but senseless. ... (They are of the same kind as the question whether the Good is more or less identical than the Beautiful.)”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein, quote from Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

About the author

Popular quotes

“Nobody deserves to go to the World Series more than the Chicago Cubs. But they can't go because that would spoil their custom of never going. It is an irreconcilable paradox.”
― Bill Bryson, quote from I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America after Twenty Years Away

“Relationships were for that reason utterly mysterious, they took place between two subconscious minds, and whatever the surface trickle thought was going on could not be trusted to be right.”
― Kim Stanley Robinson, quote from Red Mars

“If the meaning of life has become doubtful, if one's relations to others and to oneself do not offer security, then fame is one means to silence one's doubts. It has a function to be compared with that of the Egyptian pyramids or the Christian faith in immortality: it elevates one's individual life from its limitations and instability to the plane of indestructability; if one's name is known to one's contemporaries and if one can hope that it will last for centuries, then one's life has meaning and significance by this very reflection of it in the judgments of others.”
― Erich Fromm, quote from Escape from Freedom

“Sometimes hope is the most powerful medicine of all.”
― K. Bromberg, quote from Crashed

“Father of all--God!--what we have here is of thee; take our thanks and bless us, that we may continue to do thy will.”
― Lew Wallace, quote from Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ

Interesting books

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.