Does man think because he has found that thinking pays? Does he bring his children up because he has found it pays? (467)
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- People do not think or raise families just because it benefits them.
- In plain terms
- Thinking and raising kids are not done just for profit.
- What can you take from it?
- Understand that human actions are not always about gain.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Why do we think?
- What drives human action?
Another view
Some people do act mainly for benefit.
More from Ludwig Wittgenstein
What has to be accepted, the given, is - so one could say - forms of life.
Permalink to quote #56 So we do sometimes think because it has been found to pay. (470)
Permalink to quote #58 But if you say: 'How am I to know what he means, when I see nothing but the signs he gives?' then I say: 'How is he to know what he means, when he has nothing …
Permalink to quote #55
Related quotes
Impartial observers from other planets would consider ours an utterly bizarre enclave if it were populated by birds, defined as flying animals, that neverthele…
Steve AllenSteve Allen quote #22 Es irrt der Mensch, so lang er strebt.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheJohann Wolfgang von Goethe quote #63 It's only by thinking even more crazily than philosophers do that you can solve their problems. (p. 75e)
Ludwig WittgensteinLudwig Wittgenstein quote #89