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It is possible--indeed possible even according to the old conception of logic--to give in advance a description of all 'true' logical propositions. Hence there can never be surprises in logic.

Ludwig Wittgenstein

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Ludwig Wittgenstein
Age: 62 †
Born: 1889
Born: April 26
Died: 1951
Died: April 29
Aphorist
Architectural Theoretician
Epistemologist
Logician
Mathematician
Philosopher
Philosopher Of Language
Professor
Teacher
Vienna
Austria
Never
Logic
Propositions
Surprise
Hence
Indeed
Description
Possible
Advance
True
Conception
Give
Logical
Giving
According
Even
Philosophical
Surprises

More quotes by Ludwig Wittgenstein

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And to imagine a language means to imagine a form of life.
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The problems are solved, not by giving new information, but by arranging what we have always known.
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Frazer is much more savage than most of his savages, for they are not as far removed from the understanding of spiritual matter as a twentieth-century Englishman. His explanations of primitive practices are much cruder than the meaning of these practices themselves.
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Believers who have formulated such proofs [for God's existence] ... would never have come to believe as a result of such proofs
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What can be shown, cannot be said.
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Nothing is so difficult as not deceiving oneself.
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Not how the world is, but that it is, is the mystery.
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Philosophy can be said to consist of three activities: to see the commonsense answer, to get yourself so deeply into the problem that the common sense answer is unbearable, and to get from that situation back to the commonsense answer.
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If suicide is allowed then everything is allowed. If anything is not allowed then suicide is not allowed. This throws a light on the nature of ethics, for suicide is, so to speak, the elementary sin. And when one investigates it it is like investigating mercury vapour in order to comprehend the nature of vapours.
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The world divides into facts.
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One often makes a remark and only later sees how true it is.
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Make sure that your religion is a matter between you and God only.
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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.
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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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The only life that is happy is the life that can renounce the amenities of the world. To it the amenities of the world are so many graces of fate.
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There is not a philosophical method, though there are indeed methods, like different therapies.
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Sometimes, in doing philosophy, one just wants to utter an inarticulate sound.
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Propositions show what they say: tautologies and contradictions show that they say nothing.
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Philosophy is like trying to open a safe with a combination lock: each little adjustment of the dials seems to achieve nothing, only when everything is in place does the door open.
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