Skip to content

If I cannot say a priori what elementary propositions there are, then the attempt to do so must lead to obvious nonsense.

— Ludwig Wittgenstein Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922)

Wenn ich die Elementarsätze nicht a priori angeben kann, dann muss es zu offenbarem Unsinn führen, sie angeben zu wollen.

Original text (German)

Another quote →

More quotes by Ludwig Wittgenstein

Don't for heaven's sake, be afraid of talking nonsense! But you must pay attention to your nonsense.

Culture and Value (1980)

Never stay up on the barren heights of cleverness, but come down into the green valleys of silliness.

Culture and Value (1980)

Man has to awaken to wonder — and so perhaps do peoples. Science is a way of sending him to sleep again.

Culture and Value (1980)

It is one of the chief skills of the philosopher not to occupy himself with questions which do not concern him.

The way you use the word "God" does not show whom you mean — but, rather, what you mean.

Culture and Value (1980)

All Ludwig Wittgenstein quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Ludwig Wittgenstein (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.