The difficulty in philosophy is to say no more than we know. (p. 45)
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Philosophy requires restraint; one should only speak about what is truly known.
- In plain terms
- Only say what you know for sure in philosophy.
- What can you take from it?
- Restrain speech to only what is clearly known.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How do you know when you know enough to speak?
Another view
Limiting speech too much can stifle necessary exploration.
More from Ludwig Wittgenstein
But ordinary language is all right. (p. 28)
Permalink to quote #39 What I give is the morphology of the use of an expression. I show that it has kinds of uses of which you had not dreamed. In philosophy one feels forced to loo…
Permalink to quote #41 What should we gain by a definition, as it can only lead us to other undefined terms? (p. 26)
Permalink to quote #38
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