8 Ludwig Wittgenstein Quotes on Limits

Ludwig Wittgenstein quotes on limits

24. The limits of my language mean the limits of my world. (5.6)

25. Logic pervades the world: the limits of the world are also its limits. So we cannot say in logic, 'The world has this in it, and this, but not that.' For that would appear to presuppose that we were excluding certain possibilities, and this cannot be the case, since it would require that logic should go beyond the limits of the world; for only in that way could it view those limits from the other side as well. We cannot think what we cannot think; so what we cannot think we cannot say either. (5.61)

26. This remark provides the key to the problem, how much truth there is in solipsism. For what the solipsist means is quite correct; only it cannot be said, but makes itself manifest. The world is my world: this is manifest in the fact that the limits of language (of that language which alone I understand) mean the limits of my world. (5.62)

34. Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, daruber muss man schweigen.

44. The aim of philosophy is to erect a wall at the point where language stops anyway. (p.187)

51. If I have exhausted the justifications, I have reached bedrock and my spade is turned. Then I am inclined to say: 'This is simply what I do.' (217)

117. In order to be able to set a limit to thought, we should have to find both sides of the limit thinkable (i.e. we should have to be able to think what cannot be thought). (preface, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus)

130. The limits of my language are the limits of my mind. All I know is what I have words for.