Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Culture

Wittgenstein’s Words

From “Notebooks 1914–1916,” 2nd edition (University of Chicago Press, 1984):

“One of the most difficult of the philosopher’s tasks is to find out where the shoe pinches.” (p. 60)

“Certainly it is correct to say: Conscience is the voice of God.” (p. 75)

From “The Blue Book” (Harper & Row, 1965):

“For remember that in general we don’t use language according to strict rules Ρ it hasn’t been taught us by means of strict rules, either.” (p. 25) “The difficulty in philosophy is to say no more than we know.” (p. 45)

From “Philosophical Occasions 1912–1951” (Hackett Publishing Company, 1993):

“Philosophers are often like little children, who first scribble random lines on a piece of paper with their pencils, and now ask an adult ‘What is that?’” (p.193)

From “Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius” by Ray Monk (Penguin, 1991):

“I am sitting with a philosopher in the garden; he says again and again ‘I know that that’s a tree,’ pointing to a tree that is near us. Someone else arrives and hears this, and I tell them: ‘This fellow isn’t insane. We are only doing philosophy.’” (p. 578)

From “Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus” by Ludwig Wittgenstein, translated by C.K. Ogden (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1922):

Proposition 7: “Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.”

A message from our editor-in-chief Jodi Rudoren

We're building on 127 years of independent journalism to help you develop deeper connections to what it means to be Jewish today.

With so much at stake for the Jewish people right now — war, rising antisemitism, a high-stakes U.S. presidential election — American Jews depend on the Forward's perspective, integrity and courage.

—  Jodi Rudoren, Editor-in-Chief 

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.