Ludwig Wittgenstein Quotes on Belief
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94. But I did not get my picture of the world by satisfying myself of its correctness; nor do I have it because I am satisfied of its correctness. No: it is the inherited background against which I distinguish between true and false.
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144. The child learns to believe a host of things. I.e. it learns to act according to these beliefs. Bit by bit there forms a system of what is believed, and in that system some things stand unshakeably fast and some are more or less liable to shift. What stands fast does so, not because it is intrinsically obvious or convincing; it is rather held fast by what lies around it.
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206. If someone asked us 'but is that true?' we might say 'yes' to him; and if he demanded grounds we might say 'I can't give you any grounds, but if you learn more you too will think the same.'
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225. What I hold fast to is not one proposition but a nest of propositions.
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253. At the core of all well-founded belief, lies belief that is unfounded.
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Wisdom is passionless. But faith by contrast is what Kierkegaard calls a passion. (p. 53e)
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[From Kierkegaard]: 'I never believed in God before.' - that I understand. But not: 'I never really believed in Him before.' (p. 53e)
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Frazer's account of the magical and religious views of mankind is unsatisfactory; it makes these views look like errors. (p. 119)
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When I am furious about something, I sometimes beat the ground or a tree with my walking stick. But I certainly do not believe that the ground is to blame or that my beating can help anything... And all rites are of this kind. (p. 137)
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If there were a verb meaning 'to believe falsely,' it would not have any significant first person, present indicative.